On Sunday, October 19 Marjorie de Hartog and Stella Ferrer, widows of Tony Award-winners Jan De Hartog and José Ferrer, were on hand to toast the opening of Keen Company's revival of The Fourposter. The play, which premiered in 1951, is by Jan De Hartog and was originally directed by José Ferrer. Both gentlemen received Tony Awards® for their work (Best Play and Best Director). The Fourposter, presented by Keen Company (Artistic Director Carl Forsman, Producer Wayne Kelton), is directed by Blake Lawrence and stars Todd Weeks and Jessica Dickey. Performances began on October 7 and run through November 22 at The Clurman Theatre / Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues. (Attached is a photo from the evening by Suzi Sadler. L-R: Carl Forsman, Blake Lawrence, Stella Ferrer, Marjorie de Hartog, Todd Weeks, Jessica Dickey.)
The Fourposter follows thirty-five years of Michael and Agnes's marriage, from their wedding night in 1890 through the universal highs and lows of adulation, consummation, infatuation, tribulation and reparation. Having presented three of the last 20 Drama Desk nominees for Best Revival of a Play, Keen Company is thrilled to launch into its 9th season with this Tony Award-winner.
Born in Haarlem, Holland,
Jan De Hartog wrote a series of detective stories under a pseudonym and then produced a novel under his own name entitled Hollands Glorie which was published at the time of the German invasion and became a symbol of Dutch pride and independence. The Nazis failed in their attempts to use the author for their own propaganda and he was forced to go into hiding in an old people's home. It was there, in an attic room waiting for his chance to escape to England, that he wrote The Fourposter, a play he never expected to see performed, the casualty rate among escapees from Holland being 80%. However, in 1943 he was successful in reaching England where, after the war, he began to write in English. His first novel, The Lost Sea, published in 1950 by Harper and Brothers in New York, gained rave reviews, as did its successor, A Distant Shore. Others followed, and several of his books turned into movies – The Key with William Holden and Sophie Loren, The Spiral Road with
Rock Hudson and
Burl Ives, The Inspector with
Stephen Boyd, and others, to name a few. In the meantime, a movie was made of The Fourposter with
Rex Harrison and Lili Palmer and in 1951, The Fourposter opened on Broadway with
Hume Cronyn and
Jessica Tandy, directed by Jose Ferrer, winning the Tony award for that year. A musical version, I Do I Do, followed with
Mary Martin and
Robert Preston. Both the play and the musical have been performed worldwide and continue to do so to this day.
Jan De Hartog died in Houston in 2002, at the age of 88.
Blake Lawrence (Director) is the Associate Artistic Director at Keen Company and the program director of the Keen Teens education program. Previously at Keen she directed Children of a Lesser God and has commissioned 6 new plays for high school students and directed two world premieres by Naomi Iizuka and
Winter Miller. Prior to joining Keen Company she was the Founding Artistic Director of The Themantics Group where she directed Pirandello's Naked and the New York Premieres of Allison Moore's Hazard County and
Brad Fraser's Snake in Fridge. Blake's freelance directing credits include over two dozen new plays as well as published works including The Misanthrope and Angel Street. She is a member of the Lincoln Center Director's Lab and has been on the faculty at AMDA, NYU and One on One Studios. Blake is a graduate of
Northwestern University.
Jessica Dickey's New York credits include productions with Manhattan Theatre Club, HERE, Origin Theatre Company and AndHow!, and TV's "The Education of Max Bickford." Jessica is a Founding Member of The Fire Dept.
Todd Weeks most recently appeared in Some Americans Abroad at Second Stage. Broadway credits include The Full Monty (original cast), The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Summer and Smoke and Our Town. As a member of the Atlantic Theater Company, he was seen in the New York premieres of Scarcity, The Voysey Inheritance, Sea of Tranquility, Romance, The Cider House Rules and Distant Fires, among many others. Film credits include The Deal (Sundance '08), The Lonely Maiden ('08 release), Love Thy Brother (Sundance, Aspen Comedy, HBO).
The scenic design for The Fourposter is by
Sandra Goldmark; costume design is by
Theresa Squire; lighting design is by
Josh Bradford; sound design is by
Jill BC DuBoff.
Keen Company produces sincere plays with the belief that theater is at its most powerful when texts and productions are generous in spirit and provoke identification. Inspired by the works of early 20th Century American playwrights, Keen Company demonstrates that an earnest intent can still be sophisticated and is unafraid of emotional candor, vulnerability, and optimism. Keen Company seeks to create a culture of artists, technicians, administrators and audiences who share a desire to invigorate the theater with productions that connect audiences through humor, heart and hope.
The Fourposter, presented by Keen Company, plays the following schedule at The Clurman Theatre / Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues) through November 22: Tuesday at 7pm, Wednesday through Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 8pm, and Sunday at 3pm. Please note: there will be an additional performance on Saturday, November 22 @ 2pm; no performance on Sunday, November 23. Tickets are $41.25 and can be purchased through TicketCentral.com or by phoning (212) 279-4200. For more information about please visit
www.KeenCompany.org.
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