New Studio Theatre season launches with a theatrical love poem to author F. Scott Fitzgerald
On now until Saturday, September 27th at the Timms Centre for the Arts, The Violet Hour is sure to be an appealing theatre experience for literary lovers, writers, bookworms and book clubs, dreamers and poets — really anyone with an affinity for the stylish Art Deco aesthetic of The Great Gatsby-era.
Penned by American playwright Richard Greenberg as a love poem to 20th century literary giant, F. Scott Fitzgerald, the play imagines an aspiring publisher must choose between two manuscripts: his best friend from college’s sprawling masterpiece, or his older lover’s compelling memoir. Suddenly a machine arrives in his office spewing out pages from academic books of the future, detailing the devastating results of his choice. What will his decision be? Can he alter the future? How can he use his power at all, in the face of the alleged facts?
“We find ourselves throughout the play in between places. In the twilight hour. Between day and night. Set in 1919, on the cusp of the roaring 20s. We also have these young characters on the cusp of adulthood, facing all kinds of questions about class and gender, fantasy and reality.”
– Lucy Collingwood, MFA director
“It starts you off with a real sense of realism, inside a genre we are all pretty accustomed to and then it messes with you. I just love that feeling of being messed with, as an audience member, that feeling of not quite knowing where you are going? It is really exciting to me and inherently theatrical.”
The Violet Hour at U of A Studio Theatre until September 27. Photo by Ed Ellis.
“The characters are so relatable and so sweet. So heartbreakingly vulnerable. I really see them in myself and in people that I’ve known in my life. Watching what happens becomes all the more intense and heightened because of that. I think that’s the mark of really good writing.”
The Violet Hour runs until September 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the Timms Centre for the Arts (87 Avenue & 112 Street) on the University of Alberta North campus in Edmonton.
Tickets are $11 student, $22 adult, $20 senior available online now atTIX on the Square and at the Timms Centre box office one hour before each performance. A matinee is scheduled for Thursday, September 25 at 12:30 p.m.
For the full creative and production team see http://uofa.ualberta.ca/events/the-violet-hour . Video shot by Terah Jans.