The Sleeping Car at Metropolitan Opera

Obie Award winner Metropolitan Playhouse presents its next free "screened" readings, live-streamed at no charge, with talkback to follow: THE SLEEPING CAR, William Dean Howells.

East Coaster Agnes Roberts is on an overnight train, racing to properly introduce her husband to her brother, twelve years after he left to seek his fortune Out West. But she is overcome with fears she cannot contain: Will they know one another? Will the men get along? Will the mysterious stranger from California prove to be her savior or her nemesis? And will she give her fellow passengers a moments' rest?


A silly play of repeatedly mistaken identities and misplaced infants, The Sleeping Car is another Howells probe of social norms in direct conflict with personal distress. Increasingly manic and maniacally funny, it probes the anxieties of a growing country seeking identity as its urban roots entangle its frontier branches.

Discussion including audience participation follow the readings, with special guest Paul Petrie, PhD, Editor of The Howellsian (the newsletter of the William Dean Howells Society) and Professor of English at Southern Connecticut State University.

Directed by Alex Roe, the cast features Dylan Brown, Kelly Cooper, Ken Ferrigni, Andrew Firda, Sidney Fortner, Ben Gougeon, Michael A. Jones, Bex Odorisio, and Peter Tedeschi. Graphic Settings by Medusa Studio.

DETAILS:
1/23/2021 at 8 PM Eastern
Running Time: 60 minutes
Free of charge
Available at: www.metropolitanplayhouse.org
The video will be available through Wednesday, 1/27/21 on the Playhouse webpage, the Metropolitan Playhouse YouTube channel, and the Metropolitan Playhouse Facebook page.