Plain Stage Theatre Company to Present THE HITCHHIKER and SORRY, WRONG NUMBER Next Weekend

From Marion Abbott Piccin, the Brainchild of the Confidential Musical Theatre Project, comes a different way to create art! With limited rehearsals and barebones set, it becomes about the play! Welcome to Plainstage Theatre Company!

The Hitchhiker

A man driving cross-country to California finds himself haunted by a reappearing figure on the side of the road. A thriller, though in the words of Orson Wells' "if its half as good as we think it is, you can call it a shocker".

Sorry, Wrong Number

Mrs. Stevenson, a 'querulous self-centered neurotic', overhears a murder plot through a crossed telephone connection while trying to call her husband. As the night progresses she attempts to track down the murderers and begins to suspect the connection may not have been crossed after all!

Both Fletcher pieces have their origins in radio drama: a form of entertainment nearly obsolete, dependent on storytelling in lieu of visuals. This strong, simple storytelling has solidified these pieces in our popular culture since their inception in the 1940s. Aside from numerous film and television adaptations, these two Fletcher pieces have shaped the way we tell thrillers and ghost stories. I think its great being able to go back to these pieces and see that 70 years later we're still scared of the same things.

The biggest challenge in staging these pieces comes from the fact that we are working with scripts written for radio: a non-visual medium. The dialogue and script structure uses the lack of visual information to build tension by forcing the audience to fill in the blanks with their imaginations- a big part of this process will be finding ways to use actors and visuals to recreate the sensation of just sitting, listening and imagining the story.

Director Matthew Yipchuck said, "I wanted to direct the pieces because I am a big fan of anthology-style thriller writing from this era. I see a lot of parallels between Fletcher's writing and my favorite television series- The Twilight Zone (fun fact: The Hitchhiker was adapted for one of the first episodes of The Twilight Zone). These high-concept stories are grounded by real, complex characters thrown into extraordinary circumstances; its dream material for a director to get to explore. I also wanted to tackle the challenge of visualizing the plays since they were written for a non-visual medium (radio). Live radio plays have been trending onstage in the past few years, working with live foley effects and pantomimed 'behind the mic' drama: I decided early on not to go down this route. Fletcher's writing is strong enough that it can appeal to a contemporary audience without playing the pastiche card. Both pieces helped shape the conventions we've come to expect from a thriller- in many ways, Lucielle Fletcher created the 'M Night Shyamalan twist'. Audiences will notice certain story devices that have become commonplace in our movies and tv shows, and ultimately I think they'll be surprised to see that seventy years later we're still afraid of the same things- total isolation being one. Both are stories about isolation- one that asks 'how did I get here?' and the other asking 'where do I go from here?'. Lucielle Fletcher manages to answer both questions with some beautifully."

The show dates are May 13-15 @ 7:30pm, and a May 15th matinee @2pm, and tickets are available on the website: www.plainstagetheatre.com

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