SteamBath
Friday, October 03, 2008 10:18 AMThe Actors Theatre Playhouse
West Chesterfield New Hampshire
Staged Reading of Bruce Jay Friedman's 70's Black Comedy
At Actors Theatre Playhouse
Satudays August 16th and the 23rd at 8 pm
Mark Genzsler as the confused Tandy in Steambath
Playing Saturday evenings August 16th & 23rd at 8 pm the Actors Theatre Playhouse of West Chesterfield.
All General Seating tickets are $5 at the door. Reservations are not required. Playhouse InfoLine 603/ 256-8070.
If God was to ask you why you should live, how would you respond?
Do any of us really have better reasons than finishing a book on the life of Charlemagne?
On Saturday evenings August 16th & 23rd at 8 pm the Actors Theatre Playhouse of West Chesterfield will present it's second Staged Reading of the season with Bruce Jay Friedman's 70's Black Comedy STEAMBATH. All General Seating tickets are $5 at the door. Reservations are not required. Playhouse InfoLine 603/ 256-8070.
Eric Morgan directs the cast including Mark Genzsler, Imelda Riley, Dan Patterson, Mark Tullgren, Bob Jude Ferrante, Fred Lee.
Bruce Jay Friedman's black comedy STEAMBATH made its debut Off Off Broadway in 1971. Set in a room vaguely reminiscent of a steambath, men are lounging around, draped in towels and apparent camaraderie.
In STEAMBATH, however, nothing is what it appears to be.
A parade of unforgettable characters emerges from the steam, in this hilarious supernatural bathhouse. There is Tandy, our hero, fresh from teaching art appreciation at the Police Academy; Meredeth, whose last memory involves buying a micro-mini skirt; Biberman, a karate silver-belt who masquerades as a paraplegic; not to mention the Puerto Rican janitor, a mysterious man given to omniscient musings and manipulating the fate of mankind. Tandy quickly realizes when a nude beauty (Meredith) calmly strolls into the shower that something is not right. Tandy and Meredith discuss the situation and quickly come to the conclusion that they are dead.
''Where is the grandeur and the majesty,'' Tandy groans with disappointment as he looks around at the ancient bathroom tiles. Not only does Tandy refuse to accept his death, but also he is appalled to discover that God is not quite whom or what he expected.
Tandy wants proof of God's identity, and argues that he should not be dead. He is writing a book about Charlemagne, he has a new girlfriend who waits on him hand and foot and, he explains, he just has too many things to do to die.
When each person has to relate their life story for the amusement of God we see the hopeless desperation that life can be. Underneath, just below the surface, however, there is perhaps a glimpse of the person that......you never know......just might have done their best.
STEAMBATH is a philosophical argument about the meaning of life that is mostly funny, sometimes touching, and always just enough off-kilter to be consistently interesting.
No one will be allowed into the theatre once the Reading has begun.
The Actors Theatre Playhouse is located on the corner of Brook & Main Streets, West Chesterfield, NH. From Brattleboro, take Route 9 east for three miles & turn left at Brook Street. From Keene, take Route 9 west fourteen miles & turn right at Brook Street. The Playhouse is half a mile straight ahead.
