Mildred's Umbrella Theater Company (MU) is kicking off the 2018-19 season with Jen Silverman's critically acclaimed black comedy, THE MOORS, playing August 30-September 15 at Chelsea Market Theater. Based on the lives of the famous Brontë sisters, this delightfully dark play satirizes stiff Victorian mores and the romantic escapism they induce.
Set on the bleak Yorkshire Moors of northern England, THE MOORS centers on two spinster sisters living alone in a manor house with their maid and mastiff. The introduction of a governess and a crash-landing moor-hen, prompts explorations of visibility, isolation and desire among the manor's residents and the impact of a place both dangerous and beautiful on the human psyche.
THE MOORS received praise from The New York Times on its world premiere production at Yale Repertory: "'The Moors,' rolls out like the stuff of dreams, with telling passages heightened by surrealistic flights of fancy - including that mastiff and hen in an archetypally pleasing, you-really-ought-to-see-this parable."
"I've always been fascinated with the Brontë sisters and their work," said director and MU Artistic Director Jennifer Decker. "Their work is full of barely hidden rage directed at the patriarchy...from a time when women had no voice. They were feminists before it was cool. The isolation with which they lived only served to fuel their imaginations to write intriguing literature that is still widely read almost 200 years later. This play is not a biography of their lives, but an absurd celebration of their genius. I read the first scene and knew it was made for Mildred's Umbrella."
THE MOORS runs August 30 - September 15, 2018 at Chelsea Market Theater, nestled between the Museum District and Montrose. Tickets are on sale now at www.mildredsumbrella.com.
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