MCCC's Kelsey Theatre Kicks Off 2023 With AN IDEAL HUSBAND

Mercer County Community College's Kelsey Theatre kicks off 2023 with Shakespeare 70s production of Oscar Wilde's "An Ideal Husband" weekends January 20 through 29. Kelsey Theatre is located on the Mercer County Community College campus, 1200 Old Trenton Road in West Windsor.

One of Oscar Wilde's final plays, "An Ideal Husband" was first produced in 1895 and combines wit, philosophy and drama in a way that is still relevant today.

"The play is a bubbling comedy with interesting twists," said Kitty Getlik, artistic director of Kelsey Theatre.

Government minister, Sir Robert Chiltem, is respectable and well-off with a loving wife. When the conniving Mrs. Cheveley appears with evidence of a past misdeed and threatens to blackmail him, his best friend tries (through a number of comedic entanglements) to lead Sir Robert and his family out of harm. But there are others who have desires and ambitions all their own.

Countless elements of today's turbulent times: feminism, blackmail, political corruption, morality and mistrust, love and forgiveness, are all served up with effervescent Oscar Wilde wit.

In 1996 the critic Bindon Russell wrote that An Ideal Husband is "the most autobiographical of Wilde's plays, mirroring, as it does, his own situation of a double life and an incipient scandal with the emergence of terrible secrets."

The cast features Kate Augustin of East Brunswick as Mabel Chiltern, Nick Bettens of Stanhope as Lord Arther Goring, Mark Falango of Titusville as Lord Caversham, Ray Fallon of Lawrenceville as Sir Robert Chiltern, Christina Parke of Hamilton Township as Lady Markby, Shannon McGovern of Cranford as Mrs. Cheveley and Hannah Rapaport-Stein of West Windsor as Lady Chiltern.

The show is directed by Curt Foxworth. Other members of the production crew include Assistant Director Frank Fallisi, Production Manager Lili Timmes, Stage Manager Kailey Fitzgerald, Set Designer Jake Burbage, Costume Consultant Janet Quartarone and Sound Designer Sean Barton.

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