Fri 2/21 @ 7:30PM
Sat 2/22 @ 7:30PM
Sun 2/23 @ 3PM
Thu 2/27 @ 10AM
Fri 2/28 @ 7:30PM
Sat Mar 1 @ 7:30PM
Sun 2/2 @ 3PM
Lillian Hellman’s 1934 play The Children’s Hour is a heavy drama even for today. Set in a girls’ boarding school, its melodramatic plot involves a vindictive student who spreads a rumor that the headmistresses are lesbians, destroying their school and their lives with fatal results
It’s an offbeat choice for a group like the Beck Teen Theater to be tackling, although teenagers today are surely aware of homosexuality in a way the average teen in the ’30s probably was not, given very public discussions around LGBT rights and marriage equality. And today the shock value of the play and consequences suffered by the characters seem overdone.
Perhaps to compensate for that, Beck’s press release ties the play to “bullying,” today’s vague, trendy catch-all term for an absurdly wide range of mean behavior. That’s not really what The Children’s Hour is about. Seeing what modern kids make of this somewhat overwrought play could be fascinating.
The production features 16 young people ages 12-17 who will perform under the direction Beck Center’s Associate Director of Theater Education Jonathan Kronenberger.
Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for “children,” although the production has a PG-13 rating, so you probably won’t want to bring the littlest ones. This isn’t Beauty and the Beast.