Bard SummerScape
Guest from the Future
July 22, 2004
Bard SummerScape
July 22, 2004
Seven Performances:
Thursday, July 22, 8:00 pm (preview)
Friday, July 23, 8:00 pm (premiere)
Saturday, July 24, 5:00 pm
Sunday, July 25, 2:00 pm
Thursday, July 29, 8:00 pm
Saturday, July 31, 8:00 pm
Sunday, August 1, 6:00 pm
Nine Circles Chamber Theatre presents this world premiere.
Music by Mel Marvin
Libretto by Jonathan Levi
Directed by David Chambers
David Levi, music director
Darcy Scanlin, set designer
Alixandra Englund, costume designer
Chris Parry, lighting designer
Matthew Suttor, live electronics
In November 1945, shortly after the end of World War II, the British philosopher and diplomat, Isaiah Berlin, aged 35, returned to his native Russia and the city of Leningrad. A chance remark led to an introduction to the legendary poet Anna Akhmatova, then 55, who was living in a corner of the once splendid Fountain Palace. All that is known for sure is that Berlin entered Akhmatova’s flat at 3 p.m. and left at 11 the following morning. According to Akhmatova, the Cold War started that night—indeed, Winston Churchill made his famous “Iron Curtain” speech only a few months later. But equally important, that night inspired some of Akhmatova’s most moving love poetry and her imaginative recasting of Berlin as the Guest from the Future, a character in her “Poem Without a Hero.” Mel Marvin is the composer of five Broadway shows, including Tintypes, for which he was nominated for a Tony.
Tickets: $35
Image © Darcy Scanlin