THE ARMS AND ARMAMENT OF STEPHEN OF BLOIS Will Be Performed by Exit Theatre Next Week

Stephen of Blois (1092-1154), having "won" the war for the crown against his cousin, the Empress Matilda (1102-1167), now rules the majority of England as King but finds the achievement progressively undercut by personal loss, compromise, and the embarrassing truth about how he missed drowning along with most of the English court in the infamous "White Ship" disaster. Preparing for his wife's funeral, Stephen reflects on his past to a young page tasked with helping him put on his ceremonial armor, never realizing his own death is a mere two years down the road.

Playwright Stuart Bousel says "as I looked for a way into Stephen's story I realized we needed to hear what it was like to win without winning. Stephen's assumption of the throne was pretty underwhelming, made possible through compromises between himself and Matilda, rather than any kind of victorious conquest. That felt decidedly contemporary to me, anti-romantic in every way, and disturbingly similiar, I think, to how many of us Americans feel about finally flopping onto dry land after the last four years of insanity."

Actor Fred Pitts adds: "I have known about Stephen and 'The Anarachy/19 Long Winters' since childhood. But only as an adult did I start to read details about his life and his long battle with his cousin Matilda over the throne. It is a true twist of fate story. The one royal who by circumstance (a bout of diarrhea) gets off of the boat that eventually shipwrecks and kills many royals, including the heir to the throne. How would that affect you as the survivor? Would you feel like you were saved for a particular purpose? "

"I'm thrilled that Stuart is expanding this story into a series," says director Nick Trengove, "and I'm absolutely chuffed to be a part of it for many reasons, the first of which being that this was an absolutely wild and fascinating time in history with so many parallels to the world we inhabit today. In Matilda, we saw a woman struggling to hold on to her ambitions despite an uncertain future and the losses that defined her past, and I'll be damned if that didn't describe the experience of nearly every American last year. In this next installment, the camera shifts to her rival, Stephen, now at the end of his life, weighing his life in the balance and trying to justify his gains with his losses. Having reached the other side of the 2020 presidential election, and with hope in sight for the eventual end of the pandemic, Americans are poised for a similar reckoning: how do we account for our actions, or inaction, during the past year and ultimately, will we, too, be found wanting?

On May 25 the Tuesday before the live performance of "The Arms and Armament of Stephen of Blois," Stuart Bousel, Fred Pitts and Nick Trengove will be interviewed on "Hanging Out In the EXIT Cafe," hosted by Amanda Ortmayer streaming online on EXIT Theatre's YouTube channel and Facebook page at www.youtube.com/exittheatre/ and www.facebook.com/exittheatresf

"The Arms and Armament of Stephen of Blois: Part 2 of the Anarchy Quartet" is written by Stuart Eugene Bousel and directed by Nick Trengove and featuring Fred Pitts as Stephen of Blois. It is streaming live 7pm (Pacific Time) THURSDAY May 27, 2021 on EXIT Theatre's YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/exittheatre/ and EXIT Theatre's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/exittheatresf/ and then available, on EXIT Theatre's YouTube channel for a short time.

To post a comment, you must register and login.