Cardenio

World Premiere!

CARDENIO

by Stephen Greenblatt and Charles L. Mee
directed by Les Waters

May 10 - June 8, 2008
Loeb Drama Center

BUY TICKETS ONLINE or call 617.547.8300
select performance from calendar below

cast & credits - photos - synopsis - tickets - calendar - related links - restaurants

Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt and playwright Charles Mee have joined forces to produce a midsummer comedy of love based on Cardenio, a play by Shakespeare that was lost soon after its first performance. Greenblatt and Mee have woven a contemporary version of the story, now set at a wedding party on the terrace of a villa in the Umbrian hills.

Shakespeare’s fingerprints are all over this sparkling new version, from the crisscrossing of suspicious lovers to a cunning Iago-like meddler, from soliloquies (reimagined as wedding toasts) to overheard conversations, from the dream of passion to the pleasures of music and dance.

Stephen Greenblatt is one of this country’s leading Shakespeare scholars, author of Will in the World and a professor at Harvard. Charles Mee is well known to A.R.T. audiences for his ingenious plays and adaptations, including Full Circle, Snow in June, and bobrauschenbergamerica.

Produced in association with the The Public Theater, New York.

CAST & CREDITS

Will	... Thomas Kelley	Alfred	... Will LeBow
Anselmo	... Mickey Solis	Melchiore	... Thomas Derrah
Camila	... Sarah Baskin	Simonetta	... Rebecca Luttio
Sally	... Liz Wilson	Rudi	... Remo Airaldi
Edmund	... Nathan Keepers	scenic design by Annie Smart
Doris	... Maria Elena Ramirez	costume design by Christal Weatherly
Susanna	... Leenya Rideout	lighting design by James Ingalls
Luisa	... Karen MacDonald	sound design by David Remedios

PHOTOS - click any image for slide show

SYNOPSIS

For their wedding, Anselmo and Camila retreat with their closest friends to a villa in Umbria. Between the ceremony and the celebration, Anselmo begs Will, his best man, to flirt with his new wife to test her faithfulness. While Will struggles between appeasing his friend and probing his own feelings for Camila, Anselmo’s parents, both aging actors, crash the party. They bring with them two surprises – a lost play by Shakespeare and Anselmo’s ravishing former classmate, Susana, to star in the play.

Using Shakespeare’s comedies as inspiration, Stephen Greenblatt and Charles Mee pitch us into a world where love is easy to find but hard to attain, where maids double as opera divas, and where handymen build great Shakespearian performances. This midsummer comedy explores the surprising ways people find love amidst chaos.

CARDENIO TICKETS	A	B	LOEB DRAMA CENTER click image for detail proscenium seating
Friday, Saturday Evenings	$79	$56
Saturday, Sunday Matinees Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Evenings	$68	$39
Purchase tickets online: select performance from the calendar below Subscribers, Seniors, WGBH Members: $10-off tickets available online & at 617.547.8300 Subscriber ID, WGBH Member Card or proof of age required at ticket pick-up Groups of 10 or more: call 617.496.2000 x8844 for reservations Students: call 617.547.8300 for $25 advance tickets, 2 maximum, valid ID required offer discontinued when performance is sold to 75% capacity Day of show student rush: call 617.547.8300 for $15 tickets, 2 maximum, valid ID required
Other discounts may apply; discounts cannot be combined or applied retroactively. All sales final - no refunds will be issued. A service fee of $3.50 per ticket applies to online and telephone sales. Ticket exchanges can be requested with at least 24 hours notice; this service is free for subscribers and is available to other customers for $10 per transaction – see the online exchange form for further details.

MAY 2008

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

11
2:00

13

7:30

14

7:30

15

7:30

16
[Breakfast at A.R.T. canceled]

17
2:00P
8:00

18
2:00
7:30

20

7:30

21

7:30

22

7:30

23

8:00

24
2:00P
8:00

25
2:00
P-7:30

27

7:30

28

P-7:30

29

P-7:30

30

8:00

31
2:00P
8:00

Click any linked time to purchase tickets online. Unlinked times may still be available at 617.547.8300.
B	Due to a schedule conflict, the Breakfast at the A.R.T. on May 16 has been canceled. We apologize for any inconvenience. Current ticket holders please call 617.547.8300 for assistance.
P-	PREPLAY discussion one hour before curtain time.
P	*PLAYBACK* discussion follows Saturday afternoon performance.

JUNE 2008

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

1
2:00
7:30

3

7:30

4

7:30

5

7:30

6

8:00

7
2:00P
8:00

8
2:00

P	*PLAYBACK* discussion follows Saturday afternoon performance.

RELATED LINKS

ARTicles
- From Lake Como to Cambridge - interview with Stephen Greenblatt and Charles Mee by Ryan McKittrick
- Playing with Shakespeare - ten tricks & twists - by Sarah Ollove
- Deep Waters - the wizardry of Les Waters - by Sarah Ollove
- ARTicles vol. 6 no. 4 - entire issue as PDF
Media Coverage

Boston Globe - Dramatic license - by Sam Allis
Boston Phoenix - The Shakespeare mystery: Everything (almost) you wanted to know about Cardenio - by Jeffrey Gantz
Christian Science Monitor - Behind this month's staging of a 'lost' Shakespeare play - by Iris Fanger
Edge Boston - review by Kilian Melloy
Patriot-Ledger - The Bard’s lost ‘Cardenio’: Recycled, adapted and renewed - by Constance Gorfinkle
New York Times - Shakespearean Brushes Up His Playwriting - by Celia McGee
WBUR/Morning Edition - review by Ed Siegel

Program - entire booklet as PDF
- A Note on Cardenio - program note by Stephen Greenblatt and Charles Mee
- Renaissance Scholar as Playwright - Sarah Ollove interviews Stephen Greenblatt
- There Is No Such Thing As an Original Play - by Charles Mee
- Synopsis of Chapters 23-34 of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes - compiled by Sarah Ollove
- Synopsis of The Double Falsehood by Lewis Theobald (web only - not included in printed program)
On the ARTblog

Get the poster by designer Burt Sun via Zazzle.com

This page updated May 14, 2008
webmanager@amrep.org