Early Morning
by Edward Bond | Presented by VORTEX Repertory Company
What
if Queen Victoria was a lesbian? What if she was having an affair
with Florence Nightingale? What if she had only two sons, George
and Arthur, who were joined at the hip? What if her beloved Prince
Consort, Albert, and her trusted Prime Minister, Disraeli, were
plotting her overthrow while, at the same time, plotting to overthrow
each other? What if Heaven was a place where everyone was happy,
where you were reunited with lost loved ones, and where there was
plenty to eat... as long as you didn’t mind eating each other?
What if nothing was as it seems, if the truth were hidden, if what
we perceive as the only way to live was only a system imposed by
power hungry politicians intent on either controlling human lives
or, if they won’t be controlled, taking them?
Edward Bond’s pitch black comedy Early Morning was written in 1968 and is more relevant now than then. While Bond was parodying the Age of British Empire, his themes, which touch on violence, consumerism, and the truth that lies behind the façade of western culture, strongly resonate today in this, the age of American Empire. Its original production led to the abolishment of the Lord Chamberlain’s office, which had been monitoring and censoring politically objectionable material on the English stage for hundreds of years. Warning: Multiple lynched bodies, gallows humor, and consumption of a myriad of human limbs (but all in good fun).
Featuring: Steven Fay, Courtney Hopkin, Ellen Kolstö, Matthew Patterson, David Saldaña, Stephanie Swenson, and Clay Towery, with J. Conor Brooke, Henry V. Fitzgerald, Jr., Charles Hobby, Taylor Maddux, Gareth Maguire, Josh Meyer, Brandon Salinas, and Ryan Sullivan
Directed by Barry Pineo
Written by Edward Bond
Set Designer: Ann Marie Gordon
Costume Designer: Kari Perkins
Lighting Designer: Jason Amato and Brian Davis
Sound Designer: David Saldaña
