Publick Theatre Boston Presents ENTERTAINING MR. SLOANE, 3/11-4/3

Publick Theatre Boston presents Joe Orton's timeless, dark comedy Entertaining Mr. Sloane March 11 through April 3, 2010 at the Plaza Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont Street in Boston's South End. Performances are Wednesdays at 7:30pm, Thursdays at 7:30pm, Fridays at 8:00 pm, Saturdays at 3:00 pm and 8:00 pm and Sundays at 3:00pm. Tickets: $33.00 - $37.50. (SPECIAL PERFORMANCE NOTES: Preview Performances March 11 -14 - All Tickets $20. Press Performance is Sunday March 14 at 3pm. Pay What You Can performance is Saturday March 20 at 3pm.) For tickets contact the BostonTheatreScene.com box office at (617) 933-8600 or order online at www.bostontheatrescene.com.

Directed by Eric Engel, Entertaining Mr. Sloane revolves around the charming, enigmatic Mr. Sloane (Jack Cutmore-Scott) as he arrives to rent a room from Kath (Sandra Shipley), a lonely, delusional landlady, in the junkyard house she shares with her declining father, Kemp (Dafydd Rees). A handsome opportunist, Sloane quickly ingratiates himself, entering into seductions offered by both Kath, and her estranged brother Ed (Nigel Gore), who soon employs Sloane as his driver. Sloane's past misdeeds and the dueling affections within the family soon collide, leading to a desperate act that proves the limit of his charms, and reveals the ruthless and cunning strategies that Sloane's victims will engage in to preserve their unique arrangement.

According to Engel, "The play is almost a farce, in which all four characters, because they are desperately lonely, allow their domestic, social and animal instincts to become irrevocably intertwined." He adds, "Orton eliminates the line between the obvious and the Freudian, making things all the more confusing and delightful. Entertaining Mr. Sloane is a perfect play for today's audiences, who can explore sexuality with intrigue and open minds, rather than fear and judgment."

John Kingsley Orton was born in Leicester in 1933 and from the age of two, lived on the Saffron Lane council estate. After winning a scholarship to RADA in 1951, he met Kenneth Halliwell, an actor and writer seven years his senior. Halliwell would become Orton's friend, mentor, lover and, eventually, his murderer. Between 1964 and 1967, Joe Orton contributed to an exciting working class culture that swept through the nation. A promiscuous and openly gay man at a time when homosexuality was actively persecuted by the police, Orton was the rising star of an 'alternative British intelligentsia'. His first stage play, Entertaining Mr. Sloane (London 1964, Broadway 1965), was a huge success while his second, Loot, won the coveted Evening Standard award for Best Play. Other notable works included The Good and Faithful Servant, and What The Butler Saw. Orton's success as a playwright and celebrity put a distance between himself and Kenneth Halliwell that the latter found increasingly difficult to cope with. In August 1967 Halliwell, by now suffering from severe depression, murdered Orton before killing himself.

Designers include Dahlia Al-Habieli (Sets), Kenneth Helvig (Lights), Molly Trainer (Costumes), and John Doerschuk (Sound).

Publick Theatre Boston focuses on staging language-driven works - encouraging its audiences to "experience the power of the spoken word." Under the leadership of Producing Director Susanne Nitter and Artistic Director Diego Arciniegas, The Publick has experienced a renaissance, garnering critical acclaim, including the prestigious Eliot Norton Award for Outstanding Production for Arcadia by Tom Stoppard in 2005. The company has expanded its offerings to include contemporary works, such as George Bernard Shaw's Misalliance and Noel Coward's Hay Fever, as well as an original translation of Anton Chekhov 's The Seagull.

A Resident Theatre Company at the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) since Fall 2008, The Publick continues to expand and explore a deepening repertory of works, receiving both critical praise and nominations from both the Elliot Norton Awards and Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE). Productions at the BCA have included Noel Coward's Design For Living, Tom Stoppard's Travesties, Brien Friel's Faith Healer, the New England Premiere of Charlotte Jones 's Humble Boy and, most recently, the critically acclaimed production of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf.

About the Boston Center for the Arts Boston Center for the Arts is an urban cultural village, incubating and showcasing the performing and visual arts and artists of our time. Occupying a city block in Boston's historic South End, the BCA provides a creative home for artists, a welcoming destination for audiences, and an arts connection for youth and community. For more information, visit www.bcaonline.org.

WHO's WHO

JACK CUTMORE-SCOTT (Sloane) Jack has been this side of the pond for almost four years, getting a BA in English at Harvard University. After training with the British National Youth Theatre, he did a year-long stint at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts before taking an original play, Making a Scene, to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. His most recent theatrical credits include Max in Martin Sherman's Bent, title roles in Henry V and Hamlet and Orestes in Sartre's The Flies. He's very excited to be making his professional American debut with The Publick Theatre Boston.

ERIC ENGEL (Director) has been a director and arts administrator in the Boston area for twenty-five years and is currently Director of MemoriAl Hall / Sanders Theatre / College Theater Venues in the Office for the Arts at Harvard and the Artistic Director of the Gloucester Stage Company where his credits include The Goat, The Breath of Life, The Year of Magical Thinking (featuring Nancy Carroll, originally directed for the Lyric Stage), Going to St Ives and The Belle of Amherst (both with Lindsay Crouse), Doubt, My Old Lady, Spinning into Butter, Collected Stories (Elliot Norton Award: Outstanding Production by a Small Resident Company), Long Day's Journey Into Night (featuring Sandra Shipley), Our Son's Wedding (World Premiere), The Heidi Chronicles and The Subject Was Roses. He has directed over 80 productions for numerous companies including the Lyric Stage Company of Boston, SpeakEasy Stage Company (including Three Days of Rain featuring Diego Arciniegas), The Sugan Theatre Company (including The Beauty Queen of Leenane featuring Susanne Nitter) and as an artist in residence at Harvard University, Emerson College, the Boston Conservatory and Brandeis University where he earned his MFA. As a founding member and resident director for The Nora Theatre Company, Mr. Engel staged several critically acclaimed productions including Death of a Salesman (Elliot Norton Awards: Outstanding Director, Outstanding Production by a Small Resident Company), Equus, Morning's at Seven and Orphans. World Premieres include Alan Brody's The Housewives of Mannheim (at Boston Playwrights' Theatre) and John Kuntz's Miss Price (produced by Engel and Paula Plum) and Sing Me to Sleep (Coyote Theatre, Elliot Norton Award: Outstanding Production by a Fringe Company).

NIGEL GORE (Ed) Theater. Recent: 2009: Scrooge in A Christmas Carol at Stoneham Family Theatre, Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night at Shakespeare & Co; George, in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf , George Pye in Humble Boy at the Boston Publick. 2008: Henry Car in Travesties at the Boston Publick, Lavache in All's Well That Ends Well with Shakespeare & Co.; Claudius in Hamlet Shakespeare & Co., National Tour. 2007: Volumnia in Coriolanus with The Mercury Theatre in Colchester England. Mark Antony in Antony & Cleopatra and Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream Shakespeare & Co. Other recent roles include Macbeth in Macbeth at the Vineland Theatre in Los Angeles; Harry Stone in Tom Murphy's The Sanctuary Lamp, Sugan Theater Company; Bernard Nightingale in Arcadia at the Boston Publick Theatre. Television: Thurston Twitchell in seasons 2 and 3 of "Brotherhood" for Showtime. Arthur. "The Fixer" Pilot. Season 1.

DAFYDD REES (Kemp)
Theatre: Humble Boy, Travesties, The Seagull, Hay Fever (Publick Theatre), The Importance Of Being Earnest, 1776 (Lyric Stage), Gagarin Way, Talking To Terrorists (Sugan Theatre Company), The Mousetrap (Stoneham Theatre), Noises Off, Shining City, Public Jokes, Private Places, The Homecoming, Closer (Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre). Film: Noelle. Radio: The Case Of The Four Little Beatles (Cape Cod Radio Mystery Theatre). Also the author of some two dozen books, including Rock & Roll - Year By Year, VH1 Rock Stars, and the just-published Dylan, Marley, Hendrix, Lennon and Jackson for Taschen Books' "Music Icons" series. Also the co-producer of Albany, the debut CD by Gabriel Powell.

Sandra Shipley (Kath)
B'way: Equus, Pygmalion, The Retreat From Moscow, Vincent in Brixton, Induiscretions. Off-B'way: Suddenly Last Summer, Arms and the Man, Deep Blue Sea (Roundabout); Stuff Happens, Venus (Public); Kindertransport (MTC); Once Around the City (Second Stage); Phaedre (CSC); Hannah and Martin (Epic). Regional: Guthrie, Huntington, Yale Rep, Long Wharf, Hartford, Dallas Theater Center, La Jolla Playhouse, Old Globe, Williamstown, ATL Humana Festival, Boston Shakespeare Company, A.R.T. UK: Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Court, West End. Film: Monument Ave., John Lennon Story. TV: "Law & Order," "Law & Order: SVU," "Third Watch," "Lipstick Jungle," "All My Children." Awards: Elliot Norton Medal for Sustained Theatre Excellence, Robbie Award for Best Actress in a Drama.

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