The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre (The Gamm), under the leadership of Artistic Director Tony Estrella and Managing Director Amy Gravell, this week announced its 2022-23 season of bold and compellingly human plays.
Featuring five works for its intimate 185-seat theater, Season 38 starts in September with back-to-back Obie Award and Pulitzer Prize winners, followed by three more plays.
The lineup also includes a limited run of It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, back for the holidays by popular demand.
“Season 38 takes off like a rocket with two plays attempting to make sense of an upside-down world. We’ll look at the making of a modern-day tyranny in Eastern Europe, and the consequences of racial and class divide at home. In the new year, we’ll push theatrical boundaries with storytelling that connects our past, our present, and a precarious yet undetermined future,” Estrella said in a statement “I can’t wait to get started.”
Season 38 includes 5-play subscription packages on sale starting April 18. Prices range from $185-$315, with discounts for students, seniors, and groups of 10 or more.
Subscribers also get $10 off unlimited tickets to It’s A Wonderful Life. Single tickets will be available starting in August. Information and sales at 401-723-4266 or gammtheatre.org.
SEASON 38 PLAYS
DESCRIBE THE NIGHT by Rajiv Joseph
September–October 2022
In 1920, the Russian writer Isaac Babel wanders the countryside with the Red Cavalry. In 1989, a mysterious KGB agent and future Russian president spies on a woman in Dresden and falls in love. In 2010, an aircraft carrying most of the Polish government crashes in the Russian city of Smolensk. Spanning 90 years, this thrilling and epic play by the author of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo traces the stories of eight men and women connected by history, myth, and conspiracy. OBIE AWARD FOR BEST NEW AMERICAN PLAY
SWEAT by Lynn Nottage
November-December 2022
Life is hard but reassuringly predictable for a tight-knit group of friends in blue-collar Reading, PA. On the factory floor and in the local bar, bonds are forged, drinks are downed, and gossip flows. But when layoffs and picket lines chip away at their trust, friends find themselves pitted against each other in a primal fight for survival. From its slow-burn opening to its electrifying end, Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play confronts race, deindustrialization, and the ever-shrinking middle-class with humor and heart.PULITZER PRIZE WINNER
FAITH HEALER by Brian Friel
January-February 2023
A modern masterpiece by the acclaimed Irish author of Translations and Dancing at Lughnasa. Friel’s play weaves together the stories of an erratic, itinerant faith healer with those of his embittered but loving wife and his weary stage manager. In lyrical monologues, the characters deliver conflicting versions of “the fantastic Francis Hardy’s” performances, while slowly revealing a terrible event at the story’s center. A fascinating exploration of truth and superstition, and unconditional love that is not be missed.
“A major work of art.” New York Times
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN by John Ajvide Lindquist, adapted for the stage by Jack Thorne
March 2023
Oskar is a bullied, lonely teenage boy living with his mother in an apartment complex at the edge of town when a wave of mysterious killings rock the neighborhood. Eli, the young girl who has just moved in next door, doesn’t go to school and only leaves home at night. Misfits and kindred spirits, the two become devoted friends. But the shocking truth about one of them tests their connection and love beyond imaginable limits. Adapted from the bestselling Swedish novel and award-winning film, Let The Right OneIn is a brutal, tender vampire myth and coming-of-age love story for the strong of heart.
“It is this sensual, innocent, exploratory relationship that defines this beguiling stage adaptation . . .a characteristically polished and poetic piece of work.” The Guardian
THE CHILDREN by Lucy Kirkwood
April-May 2023
In a remote English cottage by the sea, retired scientists Hazel and Robin are determined to grow old together as the world crumbles around them. Practicing yoga, tending cows, and rationing electricity, the couple does its best to live “normally” in the wake of a nuclear disaster. But their already precarious existence is challenged when Rose, a friend and former colleague, shows up after 38 years with a life-altering request. Kirkwood’s small-scale West End and Broadway hit raises big questions about culpability, and what we owe ourselves and younger generations.
