The Players Club of Swarthmore Presents CHAMBER MUSIC, 1/18

The Players Club of Swarthmore presents Chamber Music, by Arthur Kopit, opening on Second Stage on January 18, 2013. Second Stage plays are fully rehearsed, out-of-book, stageworthy productions with a minimum of scenery and costumes.

Chamber Music (1962) is a comedy-drama by playwright Arthur Kopit, better known for Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad, Indians, and Wings. The play is set in an absurdist caricature of an insane asylum, in 1938. The inmates believe they are Susan B. Anthony, Constanze Mozart, Joan of Arc, and a handful of other historical figures, but they also share the delusion that the male ward of the asylum is about to mount an attack. At its New York production in 2008, the play was seen as reflecting the tensions of the cold war, but with a proto-feminist message: one reviewer asked, "was Kopit making the point that women who assert power are perceived as, in some sense, crazy?"

The Swarthmore production, directed by Rose Azrael, features Cathy Baum, Kristy Boyer Chen, Janean Clare, Amy Culver, Donna Kelly Romero, Megan O'Donnell, Jillian Haas, Joan Bickel, David Palmer, and Liam MacDonna. It plays Friday and Saturday January 18, 19, 25, 26 at 8:00 p.m.; Sunday, January 27 at 2:00 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, February 1 and 2 at 8:00 p.m. Admission is $10 at the door.

A wine and cheese reception will precede the performance on Friday, January 18. On Friday, January 25, the audience is invited to meet the artists after the performance. Friday, February 1 is dessert night: come at 7:00 to enjoy dessert and coffee before the performance.

Second Stage productions play in the Raymond Smith Space, which is up a flight of stairs and not handicapped-accessible. Chamber Music is not recommended for pre-teens.

For more information and tickets please visit http://www.pcstheater.org/site/second-stage/chamber-music/