Photo Flash: The Shakespeare Theatre Of New Jersey Presents THE LITTLE FOXES

For tickets or more information, call the box office at 973-408-5600, email boxoffice@shakespearenj.org or visit www.ShakespeareNJ.org. On the short list of high-profile, American women playwrights, Lillian Hellman rises toward the top with an impressive canon of plays and screenplays including Watch on the Rhine and The Children's Hour. The critically acclaimed and partially autobiographical The Little Foxes opened on Broadway in 1939 and starred Tallulah Bankhead as Regina Hubbard.

It was subsequently made into a feature film starring Bette Davis. Hellman's career as a screenwriter was celebrated in Hollywood until she was put before the House Un-American Activities Committee and blacklisted; thankfully, she was welcomed back to the theatre community and continued writing until her death in 1984. The Little Foxes is the story of the ambitious, Southern, middle-class Hubbard siblings and their less-than-honorable scheme to become rich even at the expense of destroying their own family.

Set in 1900, the Hubbard brothers Oscar and Benjamin and their sister Regina are certain they can finally join the ranks of the social elite if they make good on a business venture to build a cotton mill in the town. Inflamed by greed, the siblings conspire to deceive and manipulate their own family, as well as each other, despite the inevitable consequences. About the original Broadway production, Broadway in Review wrote, "Miss Hellman has a genus for plotting," and the New York Times said, "As a theatrical story-teller, Lillian Hellman is biting and expert."

Photo: Gerry Goodstein