Image courtesy of cwACT.Central Wisconsin Area Community Theater (cwACT) will be hitting the stage with it’s production of The Philadelphia Story over two weekends. All shows are at the Theater@1800 (formerly the Sentry Theater), 1800 Northpoint Drive, Stevens Point, WI. Tickets are $12 for adults or $8 for children under 12 and are available online through the UWSP Box Office. There is additional ticket information on the cwACT site.
- Performances dates and times are:
- February 10, 2012 Friday – 7:30pm
- February 11, 2012 Saturday – 7:30pm
- February 12, 2012 Sunday – 4:00pm
and - February 17, 2012 Friday – 7:30pm
- February 18, 2012 Saturday – 7:30pm
- February 19, 2012 Sunday – 4:00pm
This play has nothing in the world to do with HIV or AIDS. There was a movie in 1993 called Philadelphia with Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, and yes, that movie was about a lawyer with HIV. There is also a TV show called It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which is a sitcom starring Danny DeVito, and, for that matter, there was a not very good time travel movie in 1984 called The Philadelphia Experiment, and neither of those have anything to do with this play, either, except that they have the word "Philadelphia" in the title, and somehow that really seems to trip people up.
The Philadelphia Story is a 1939 romantic comedy written by Philip Barry specifically for Katharine Hepburn, whose career was on the rocks at the time. The play was a success, as was the 1940 film of the same name featuring Hepburn, Carey Grant, and James Stewart.
Despite it’s age, the script holds up. The story centers around a wealthy young woman, already divorced once, about to re-marry. On the eve of the wedding, she is essentially blackmailed into allowing a reporter from a tabloid full access to the ceremony. As the day unfolds, we meet her ex-husband, who lives on the estate next door, her father, who, though still married, is home for the weekend from his girlfriend’s apartment in the city, her uncle, who is drunk or hungover for the entire show, and so many more characters who are more than caricatures. They’re people we know, people we care about. Maybe even people we are.
Get to know them all at the Theater@1800. Once you know The Philadelphia Story, you won’t confuse it with anything else, even if the other thing is set in the same city.
