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New York, NY Pe r m i t N o . 7 5 2 8
pa i d
Directed by
Jonathan Bank
with:
Todd Cerveris Elisabeth Gray Mikaela Izquierdo Max von Essen Stephen Schnetzer Now Performing at The Beckett Theatre, Theatre Row 410 West 42nd St, between 9th & 10th
Jonathan Bank
An Un-Romantic Comedy about the price of free love
Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal
Directed by
non - profit u . s . postage
February 18
“No drama troupe in America has carved out a more distinctive niche for itself than the Mint Theater Company.”
through
330 West 42nd St, Ste 1210 NY, NY 10036
December 27
PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
JONATHAN BANK MANAGING DIRECTOR
JEN SOLOWAY
Carolyn Mraz Kazcorowski LIGHTS Xavier Pierce ORIGINAL MUSIC & SOUND Jane Shaw PROPS Joshua Yocom CASTING Stephanie Klapper, CSA PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER Pamela Edington STAGE MANAGER Jeff Meyers ILLUSTRATION Stefano Imbert GRAPHICS Hey Jude Design, Inc. ADVERTISING The Pekoe Group PRESS David Gersten & Associates SETS
COSTUMES Hunter
December 27 through February 18 Theatre Row | The Beckett Theatre | 410 West 42nd St
MintTheater.org THIS PRODUCTION IS SUPPORTED IN PART BY: The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
By public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
An Un-Romantic Comedy about the price of free love YOURS UNFAITHFULLY is an insightful, intelligent and exceptionally intimate peek behind the closed doors of an open marriage. Stephen and Anne, blissfully happy for eight years, are committed to living up to their ideals. When Stephen, a writer who isn’t writing, begins to sink into a funk of unproductive moodiness, Anne encourages him to seek out a fresh spark. Can their marriage survive uncompromising generosity, sacrifice and love? Few qualities are so rare among contemporary dramatists as the power, which Mr. Malleson possesses, to create love that looks to no audience but its own. His lovers preserve, even on the stage, so much of the deep privacy of love, so much of its power in instants of magic to exclude the world as if the world was not, that we who watch are made intruders. The impulse is not to stare, but to hide the eyes; not to yield to the illusion, but to escape from it…Such scenes Mr. Malleson is able now and then to write. (The Times, reviewing Merrileon Wise by Miles Malleson 1926) YOURS UNFAITHFULLY was published in 1933 but never produced, making Mint’s production a very belated World Premiere.
“Miles Malleson had a very funny face, which could be described as being part of his fortune; but unlike a number of performers whose face has been practically their entire stock in trade, Malleson was an actor of distinction, an artist of imagination and depth, whose best characterizations, especially in Shakespeare, were among the treasures of our theatre for many years…He excelled in comedy that came from guileless but not silly men. His nit-wits had souls as well as stupidities. His work in the theatre spanned nearly sixty years. He worked with Granville Barker and J.B. Fagan, with Playfair, Gielgud and Olivier, at the Old Vic in London and Bristol; in the West End and in the provinces. His acting, within its range, was unrivaled for effect, interest and significance, and he contributed valuable work as a translator of Moliere, as a writer, notably with The Fanatics and Six Men of Dorset—with H. Brooks—and as an influence for all that was intended to be of value to the theatre, irrespective of profit or fame.” Stage and Television Today, March 20, 1969
William Miles Malleson (1888-1969)
A handful of newspapers reviewed YOURS UNFAITHFULLY in its printed form in 1933. The Spectator described it as “vivacious and intelligent, as you would expect from Mr. Malleson.” Bertrand Russell (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1950) critiqued the play for the Observer, calling it “the best play that Mr. Malleson has hitherto produced, both because it is well constructed and moves with great sureness, and also because it is quite free from all taint of propaganda…The subject is treated delightfully, with humor and kindliness and without any dogmatic conclusion. The characters behave as real people do behave, and not according to some convention of the theatre.”
In December of 1968, a few months before he passed away, Malleson started work on an autobiography. He described having two childhoods, one was almost absurdly idyllic: “I cannot believe there was a happier family in England, or anywhere else in the world, for that matter.” The other was spent on school holidays with his grandparents and uncle, a local vicar. All three adults were “passionately Puritanical.” Malleson recalls several interrogations about “impure thoughts” on these visits which left him “absolutely terrified with guilt and fear for my life. And that guilt has followed me through my life,” he wrote at the age of 80, “It took me years and years to throw off—even if I’ve done so now.”
Russell neglects to mention that the play seems to find inspiration in his own marriage (to Dora). It’s no surprise that as a critic Russell is slightly grudging about the play’s humor: “It has some very good comic situations, and I suppose the troubles of the principal characters might be regarded as amusing, although from their own point of view they are very uncomfortable.”
Malleson’s plays, always personal and passionate, reflect the clash of these two conflicting and formative experiences. He was a playwright of rare insight and conviction and his plays were charged with a provocative wit and an urge for social reform.
“If marriage is to achieve its possibilities, husbands and wives must learn to understand that whatever the law may say, in their private lives, they must be free.” Marriage and Morals, Bertrand Russell, 1929 “What is there in this freedom that is so dangerous and wicked other than its opposition to our traditional prejudices? It would strengthen and broaden rather than weaken and damage character; it would add to our lives great variety and happiness.” The Right to Be Happy, Mrs. Bertrand Russell (Dora Russell) 1927 Malleson’s wrote a dozen plays, plus numerous translations and adapations. The most successful was The Fanatics, also an outspoken play on the subject of sex, in this case, before marriage. Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times wrote, “The Fanatics of the title are those who have the courage to live their lives as they think proper. Whatever the reason may be for their intellectual ruthlessness, you must respect their courage and sincerity.”
“Mr. Malleson has the advantage of being a thinker by intent and a dramatist by instinct. He comes by his ideas with the gusto of a discoverer.” The Guardian, 1927 A comic presence in British films, as well as the stage, Malleson’s acting work increasingly eclipsed his playwriting. Today he might be remembered for playing the Sultan in The Thief of Bagdad (which he also wrote), the hangman in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949, with Sir Alec Guinness) or Rev. Chasuble in The Importance of Being Earnest (1952, with Edith Evans). At the time of his death, his plays had been long forgotten, leading the Times to declare in his obituary that “the Malleson behind the comedian’s face, the Malleson who cared sincerely for the advancement of the liberties of man, never wholly discovered himself save to those who knew him personally.” Beginning December 27, 2016, Mint Theater Company will introduce theatergoers to the man behind the funny face.
enrichMINT events ENRICHMINT EVENTS ARE SUPPORTED IN PART BY A GRANT FROM THE MICHAEL TUCH FOUNDATION.
All events take place immediately after the performance and usually last about fifty minutes. They are free and open to the public. Speakers and dates subject to change without notice.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28 after the matinee: “LIBERTY AND LOVE? THE MARRIAGE OF DORA AND BERTRAND RUSSELL” DEBORAH GORHAM, CARLETON UNIVERSITY Deborah Gorham serves as Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of History at Carleton University. She is the author of Marion Dewar: A Life of Action and Vera Brittain: A Feminist Life. She has published articles on the marriage of Dora and Bertrand Russell (which provided Malleson with inspiration for his play), and on the progressive Beacon Hill School, which the couple founded in 1927.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 7 after the matinee: “TO STRAY OR NOT TO STRAY: THE SCIENCE BEHIND OPEN RELATIONSHIPS” DR. HELEN FISHER, AUTHOR OF ANATOMY OF LOVE: A NATURAL HISTORY OF MATING, MARRIAGE AND WHY WE STRAY Helen Fisher, PhD Biological Anthropologist, is a Senior Research Fellow at The Kinsey Institute, member of the Center for Human Evolutionary Studies in the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers University, and Chief Scientific Advisor to the Internet dating site Match.com. She has conducted extensive research and written six books on the evolution and future of human sex, love, and marriage.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 8 after the matinee: “A MAN OF IDEAS: MILES MALLESON’S MODERN COMEDIES” MAYA CANTU, THEATER HISTORIAN AND DRAMATURG Maya Cantu is a theater historian, scholar, and Dramaturgical Advisor for the Mint. Maya currently serves on the Drama Faculty of Bennington College is the author of the book, American Cinderellas on the Broadway Musical Stage: Imagining the Working Girl from “Irene” to “Gypsy.” Her discussion will focus on the life and work of Miles Malleson.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 14 after the matinee: “IT’S VERY DIFFICULT TO KEEP ON SAYING NO, ISN’T IT?”: SEX AND BRITISH MODERNISM ANNE FERNALD, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY Anne Fernald is Professor of English and Women’s Studies at Fordham University. She is the author of Virginia Woolf: Feminism and the Reader and the editor of a textual edition of Mrs. Dalloway for Cambridge University Press. Anne will discuss the work of Miles Malleson in the context of British Modernist literature, which rejected Victorian attitudes toward sex and marriage.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 15 after the matinee: “HOW LONG HAS THIS BEEN GOING ON? EXPERIMENTAL MARRIAGE IN THE 20TH CENTURY” KRISTIN CELELLO, CUNY QUEENS COLLEGE Professor Celello is Associate Professor of History at CUNY Queens College. She is the author of Making Marriage Work: A History of Marriage and Divorce in the Twentieth-Century United States and the co-editor of Domestic Tensions, National Anxieties: Global Perspectives on Marriage, Crisis, and Nation. She is currently writing a book titled After Divorce: Parents, Children, and the Making of the Modern American Family.