Playing With Fire

Previews begin Friday, May 18
Opens Sunday, May 20 @ 3PM

The Negro Ensemble Company, the August Strindberg Repertory Theatre, and Theater Resources Unlimited, in a new adaptation of one of Strindberg's rare character-based comedies, "Playing With Fire," present the first-ever production of this play to feature an all-black cast. In his adaptation, Tony-nominee and Obie-winner, Leslie Lee, has transformed its setting from a Swedish summer house in 1893 to a summer cottage of the black intelligentsia in Oak Bluffs, on Martha's Vineyard, in 1926, during the burgeoning years of the Harlem Renaissance, where it became a Mecca for the Black social elite from around the country.

A writer, Axel (modeled on Strindberg himself), visits his best friends, Kerstin and Knut, at their summer house. Knut is a painter who doesn't paint and Kerstin a writer who doesn't write. They live with and off of his parents. His father is a wealthy, retired investment banker with a questionable past. Also present is their younger cousin Adele, a poor relation, treated more like a Dickensian servant than a family member. Knut is having an affair with Adele, but his father has his own plans for her and presents a formidable roadblock. She and Kerstin, however, have their eyes set on Axel, who makes his escape from the thickening quicksand just in the nick of time.

The adaptation of “Playing With Fire” by Leslie Lee is based on a translation by Ulrika Brand, and directed by Robert Greer with dramaturgy by Eszter Szalczer. Maxine Kern will add further dramaturgy during the rehearsal period.

The stellar cast will feature James Edward Becton, Elizabeth Flax, Toccarra Cash, Nathan James, Jaleesa Capri, and Jolie Garrett.

Evenings Performances Thursday - Saturday @ 7:30
Matinees Saturday @ 2PM and Sunday @ 3PM