Interplayers Explores Love

Thu., May 14, 1998

By Jim Kershner jimkershner@comcast.net

The Interplayers Ensemble closes out its season with one of the most romantic and sentimental yet realistic views of marriage ever put on stage, Jan de Hartog’s “The Fourposter.”

This 1951 Tony winner follows a couple through 35 years of marriage from their wedding night in 1890 to the day they finally pack up and move away. Through it all, their old fourposter bed stands in the corner, observing the laughter, the tears and the joy.

Rarely has a play so thoroughly explored what it means for two people to be deeply in love.

Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy starred in the original Broadway production. There’s a trend here this is the second Interplayers show this season that began life as a Hume Cronyn-Jessica Tandy Broadway smash. The first was “The Gin Game.”

Some people might be familiar with the plot of “The Fourposter” from the musical “I Do! I Do!” That’s the musical version of “The Fourposter,” with music by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, but in most ways the original is deeper and more satisfying.

Jan de Hartog was a Dutch seaman-turned-actor who starred in his own play, “Skipper Next to God,” in London in 1945. “The Fourposter” followed five years later, and a year after that it opened in New York. It has since become one of the most enduring two-character plays of the half-century.

The Interplayers production stars Jennifer True and Tim McMurray. They are a fitting choice for this show they are newlyweds.

Joan Welch directs, and this show will undoubtedly have some personal meaning for her, too. She and Interplayers co-founder Bob Welch recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

“The Fourposter” opens Friday in a reduced-price preview. The regular run begins Saturday with shows at 2 and 8 p.m. and continues through June 6. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday shows are at 7:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday shows are at 8 p.m. Matinees will be at 2 p.m. on May 20 and 23.

Tickets are $16.60 and $14.35 for evening shows, $13.25 for matinees.

Friday’s preview is $12.95 and $11.50. Call 455-PLAY for reservations. The theater is at 174 S. Howard.

Student-directed one-acts

The Eastern Washington University Theatre presents four student-directed one-act plays this weekend and next week.

The four shows are: “A Late Snow,” about five women trapped in a cabin during a blizzard, directed by Greg Girnus; “If Men Played Cards As Women Do,” about four manly men who play cards in a not-so-manly fashion, directed by Jessica Louise Green; “A Case of Belonging,” a comedy about the angel and devil fighting over a soul, directed by Benjamin Dyck; and “Ferryboat,” about a girl on a Mississippi ferryboat, directed by Steve Glass.

These shows run Friday and Saturday, and Tuesday through May 23. All shows are at 8 p.m. at the University Theater. Tickets are $5, available at the door, or free to Eastern students and one guest.

Miss Lee Lee in cabaret

Dempsey’s Brass Rail Cabaret presents Miss Lee Lee, Aletha Everette, in cabaret tonight, Friday and Saturday. She is familiar to local theater audiences with her show-stopping performances in “Showboat,” “Ain’t Misbehavin”’ and “Porgy and Bess.”

Here, she’ll mix in some ballads and high-energy up-tempo tunes.

All shows are at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance by calling 747-5362, or $12 at the door. Dempsey’s Brass Rail Cabaret is at 909 W. First.

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