Eugene O’Neill play ‘A Moon for the Misbegotten’ comes to Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre on Feb. 25
From a press release:
“A Moon for the Misbegotten,” the final play written by four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author Eugene O’Neill, will be performed by Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Theatre Company at the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre on Thursday, Feb. 25 at 7 p.m.
Tickets, which are $18, $28, and $38, plus fees, are on sale now and available through the Kirby Center box office (71 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre), online at kirbycenter.org, and by phone at 570-826-1100.
In O’Neill’s touching and heartbreaking classic, we are introduced to one of theater’s most important and complex female characters – Josie Hogan. A boisterous Irish woman with a quick tongue and a tarnished reputation, she’s had a hard and lonely life working the Tyrone farm with her bullying father.
When James Tyrone Jr.’s mother dies, he returns to the farm to settle the estate and attempts to navigate his complicated relationship with Josie and her father. Tyrone is a tortured alcoholic on the edge of despair. Haunted by his past, he has drowned himself in self-pity and remorse. One night, under the autumn moon, he opens his heart to Josie. Sparks fly and hope is rekindled as two “misbegotten” souls come together. But as dawn breaks, is the saving grace of love enough to overcome a lifetime of disappointment?
Following the great success of “Long Day’s Journey into Night,” one of America’s master storytellers is at the height of his prowess in “A Moon for the Misbegotten.” O’Neill is a four-time Pulitzer Prize-winner and Nobel laureate. “Moon” is his final play, and his only true love story.
“Moon” was published in 1943 and has been produced five times on Broadway, as well as by theaters worldwide. It is also a critically acclaimed film starring Jason Robards and Colleen Dewhurst.
Founded in 1809, Walnut Street Theatre is the oldest continuously operating theatre in the United States. For more than 200 years, this venerable institution has stood the test of time to become a staple of Philadelphia’s and, for that matter, America’s cultural community.
Over the past two centuries, the Walnut’s landmark theatre has been graced by some of America’s most legendary performers, including Ethel Barrymore, Marlon Brando, Sidney Poitier, Helen Hayes, and Kathryn Hepburn. Its grand stage has housed a remarkably wide range of entertainment and national events, including circus, opera, vaudeville, lectures, music, dance, motion pictures, live theatre, and even the first televised presidential debate between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.
“A Moon for the Misbegotten” marks Walnut Street’s sixth national tour, following “The Glass Menagerie,” “Proof,” “Around the World in 80 Days,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” and “A Life in the Theatre.”
