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STOLEN CHAIR THEATRE COMPANY
PRESENTS
THE BACHELORS’ TEA PARTY
EVERY SUNDAY @ LADY MENDL’S TEA SALON
INCLUDES A FIVE COURSE TEA SERVICE
Stolen Chair Theatre Company will present The
Bachelors’ Tea Party, a surreal society comedy performed by two
actors and four dolls alongside an exquisite 5-course classic tea service,
every Sunday afternoon at 5pm at Lady Mendl’s Tea Salon (56 Irving
Place between 17th and 18th Street). This unique theatrical experience
was written by Stolen Chair’s resident playwright Kiran Rikhye
(Kinderspiel; Kill Me Like You Mean It; Theatre is Dead
and So Are You) and will be directed by Stolen Chair’s Artistic Director,
Jon Stancato (named “one of the most daring and imaginative directors
of his generation” by Martin Denton of nytheatre.com). Stolen Chair veteran
actress Liz Eckert (Stage Kiss; Kinderspiel) will
be joined onstage by Jody Flader (The Vineyard Theater’s Slug
Bearers of Kayroi Island).
The Bachelors’ Tea Party is an absurd and
absurdly intimate new comedy inspired by the relationships of Elsie de
Wolfe (Lady Mendl) and Bessie Marbury, who referred to themselves as “The
Bachelors,” after they took up joint residence sans men in the first years
of the 20th century. Before she invented the profession of interior
decorator, de Wolfe was a struggling Broadway performer, known more for
her costumes than her acting, and her partner Bessie Marbury, legendary
agent and broker, was introducing America to Oscar Wilde and discovering
Cole Porter. In a playfully perverse take on a young girl’s imaginary
tea party, de Wolfe and Marbury will delight and torment each other and
entertain a coterie of special guests, “performed” by dolls assembled
around the table, with audience members seated only inches away.
The show will play every Sunday at 5pm, September
2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, & 30th and October 7th, 14th, 21st, & 28th
at Lady Mendl’s Tea Salon (56 Irving Place between 17th and 18th
Street). Tickets ($55, including a 5-course tea service) may be
purchased online at http://www.stolenchair.org
or by calling 212-410-2830. Capacity is extremely limited,
reservations are strongly recommended.
“Jody Flader and Liz Eckert impress… in Kiran Rikhye's
absurd light comedy. Cleverly staged like a child's tea party with
porcelain dolls sitting in for the couple's social circle, the dainty show
is made more satisfying by a tasty five-course tea service."
Brandon Voss, The Advocate
“Charming, witty, and extremely interesting.” Martin
Denton, nytheatre.com
"As much of an event as a play… the finest night
of dinner theater [theatregoers] are ever likely to encounter.” Backstage
"[If] only all theatre included beautifully presented,
deliciously decadent five course tea services… As we got up to leave,
a woman I had been sharing a table with exclaimed, 'Well that was just
lovely' " New York Theatre Review
STOLEN CHAIR THEATRE COMPANY Named best “genre-bending
theatre” by New York Press, Stolen Chair is a theatre laboratory dedicated
to the creation of playfully intellectual, wickedly irreverent, and exuberantly
athletic original works. Proudly plundering the pop culture of the past
half millennium, Stolen Chair’s aesthetically promiscuous work recycles
and reinvents old genres and stories to discover new ways to challenge
and delight contemporary audiences. Pioneer of the Community Supported
Theatre movement, Stolen Chair is supported, in part, by the Nancy Quinn
Fund and by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.
Since opening, LADY MENDL’S TEA SALON has been
consistently rated the best and most romantic Tea Salon in New York City.
Guests enjoy a scrumptious five-course tea, consisting of a variety of
classic finger sandwiches, fresh baked scones with clotted cream and jams,
and a large selection of fine teas. The Victorian style architecture and
furnishings recreate a time of sublime elegance. Guests can easily envision
Edith Wharton or Elsie de Wolfe entertaining friends at the turn of the
century.
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