Gamm Pairs Churchill's ESCAPED ALONE With Beckett's COME AND GO

The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre (The Gamm) pairs the New England premiere of Caryl Churchill's newest play, Escaped Alone, with Samuel Beckett's 1965 minimalist play, Come and Go, for what promises to be a compelling theatrical experience.

Gamm Artistic Director Tony Estrella directs both plays, which share a common theme of life-long friendship between women facing life's joys, anxieties and vicissitudes. Escaped Alone, Churchill's quirky one-act mixing domestic comedy with dystopian horror, features Karen MacDonald (Gamm debut), Marya Lowry (Hedda Gabler), Carol Drewes (Gamm debut) and Debra Wise (Gamm debut). In Come and Go, MacDonald, Lowry and Drewes reappear as childhood friends in the autumn of their lives. Beckett's less than 10-minute long piece is considered by some critics to be one of his most perfect plays.

"Escaped Alone and Come and Go speak to each other powerfully across 50 years of theatrical history," said Gamm Artistic Director Tony Estrella. "Escaped Alone examines the day-to-day toll of family relationships, careers, and aging on three old friends in the context of today's environmental threats and our over-connected digital age. Come and Go lays bare the bond of love that has held three women together since their school days, despite all that may loom ahead. Together these distinct plays are like two movements of a single symphony, teasing out shared motifs, themes and ideas in surprising and illuminating ways."

Escaped Alone with Come and Go is a limited 3-week run from February 28-March 17 at The Gamm Theatre, 1245 Jefferson Blvd., Warwick, RI.Tickets are $44, $52 and $60; preview performances (February 28-March 3) are $33. Call 401-723-4266 or order online at gammtheatre.org.

Over a summer of afternoons in a suburban backyard, four 70-something women chat amiably about topics big and small: grandchildren and lost keys, insomnia and a crippling fear of cats, chemical leaks and famine. By turns hilarious and unsettling, Churchill's newest play explores the solace of community amid everyday fear and looming catastrophe. Don't miss what The Observer calls "an intricate, elliptical, acutely female view of the apocalypse" by one of Britain's most innovative living playwrights

Escaped Alone was recognized by StageSource's "Standing O" for promoting gender parity in theater.

Three women of an "age undeterminable" meet on a bench after years apart. In less than 10 minutes, fond schoolgirl memories devolve into foreboding gossip. This beautiful, cryptic capsule of a play will leave you smiling and also haunted.

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