Mary Broome

New York, NY Pe r m i t N o . 7 5 2 8

MINT THEATER COMPANY – presents –

PA I D

AT THE MINT THEATER, 311 WEST 43RD ST, 3RD FLOOR

NON - PROFIT U . S . POSTAGE

866-811-4111 or minttheater.org AUGUST 18 THROUGH OCTOBER 14 SPECIAL DISCOUNT OFFER! Save 30% August 18 and 19: Pay Only $38.50 Save 20% August 21 through September 9 Pay Only $45 (use code Mint45)

PHONE: 866-811-4111 M-F 9am -9pm; S-S 10am - 6pm

PERFORMANCES Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday at 7pm Friday & Saturday at 8pm Saturday & Sunday at 2pm

IN PERSON: 311 W. 43rd St, Ste 307

No Evening Performance on Saturday, August 18

ONLINE: minttheater.org

No performance Tuesday, September 11

CHEAP TIX

Added Matinee Wednesday, October 10 at 2pm

You don’t have to be a cheapskate to appreciate a bargain, especially these days.

We offer a LIMITED NUMBER of HALF-PRICE TICKETS ($27.50) for EVERY PERFORMANCE. FAQ: How many seats are available?

About 10 per night, sometimes less—and once they’re gone, they’re gone.

Do I get to choose where I sit?

No. We assign your seats the night of the performance. But don’t worry, our theater only has 100 seats.

Will I get to sit with my friends?

Absolutely. We won’t ever split your party.

Monday, October 15th A Special EnrichMint Event Reading of The Conquering Hero by Allan Monkhouse THE CONQUERING HERO is a bracing examination of objection to war in 1914 and the war’s psychological aftermath. In the play, a young artist stuns his family by objecting to the war—then, on a whim, he joins the army anyway. When he returns home, he is so shell-shocked he cannot bear to be celebrated as “the conquering hero”—something his family and community cannot comprehend.

Written in the early years of the war, Monkhouse opted not to have the play published until 1923, knowing the world would need to catch up to his controversial arguments. The next year, the play opened on the West End and was hailed as “nothing else than a great play, ” making its author a household name to London playgoers.

Join fellow Mint friends and historian George Robb, author of “British Culture and the First World War” for dinner at Etcetera Etcetera on West 44th St. Enjoy a delicious meal while Dr. Robb prepares you for the reading at the Mint. The reading will be followed by cookies and coffee with the cast.

DINNER: 6:00 PM $85 PER PERSON (INCLUDES DINNER AND READING) READING: 8:00 PM READING ONLY: $25

With

Rod Brogan Janie Brookshire By

Allan Monkhouse

Jonathan Bank Sets ROGER HANNA Costumes MARTHA HALLY Lights NICOLE PEARCE Sound JANE SHAW Props JOSHUA YOCUM Dialects & Dramaturgy AMY STOLLER Additional Dramaturgy HEATHER J. VIOLANTI Casting AMY SCHECTER

Katie Fabel Kristin Griffith

Directed by

311 W. 43rd St. 3rd Floor New York, NY 10036

ORDER YOUR TICKETS TODAY!

“This 1911 comedy by Allan Monkhouse is a beady-eyed examination of class, social progress and exploitation.” The Times, 2011

(Regular Price $55. $2.75 per ticket service charge applies to all orders)

Production Manager SHERRI KOTIMSKY Production Stage Manager KATHY SNYDER Assistant Stage Manager ALEX HAJJAR Illustration STEFANO IMBERT Graphics HEY JUDE DESIGN, INC. Advertising THE PEKOE GROUP Press DAVID GERSTEN & ASSOCIATES

AUG 18 - OCT 14

866-811-4111 or minttheater.org

Roderick Hill Julie Jesneck Patricia Kilgarriff Graeme Malcolm Douglas Rees Erica Swindell Jill Tanner

S

“ he’s the best housemaid the wealthy Timbrell family have ever had; but little do they know that Mary Broome has been performing rather more personal services for the household’s youngest son.

“This 1911 comedy by Allan Monkhouse is a beady-eyed examination of class, social progress and exploitation.”- The Times, 2011 Monkhouse’s biting comedy tells the story of a household turned upside down by an upstairs/downstairs liaison. Mary, the housemaid, is pregnant by Leonard, the wayward son—and everyone is eager to do the right thing—if only they knew what that was.

MARY BROOME is as fresh and funny as it was 100 years ago. It premiered in 1911 at Manchester’s Gaiety Theatre and quickly moved to London. The Guardian called it “A remarkable piece of work” in “the company of masterpieces in comedy.” The Observer declared its style akin to “Shaw and Hankin, with a dash of Granville Barker.”

that the play “reminds us that today’s bantering, egotistical, arty-crafty, frustrated angry young man has already been on our stage for nearly 50 years.”

Make that 100 years— MARY BROOME remains a razor sharp comment on the decadence of modern society. In 2011 London’s Orange Tree Theatre rescued the play from obscurity with a production that confirmed the play as

Pungent Piece of Provocation.”

An-Enduringly The Times, 2011

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Even today, Leonard Timbrell is “a fascinatingly disruptive character. As a subversive saboteur at the bourgeois hearth, he’s compromised by something unreachable and irresponsible in his nature” writes the Independent.

“What’s striking about the play today is that it not only transports us back to a bygone era of high and mighty middle-class mores and lowly working-class expectations but that it also continues to speak to modern confusions about what men and women can expect from life—and from each other.” Telegraph, 2011

ENRICHMINT EVENTS

EnrichMINT Events are supported in part by a grant from The New York Council for the Humanities and the Michael Tuch Foundation.

All events take place immediately after the performance and usually last about fifty minutes.

They are free and open to the public. Speakers and dates subject to change without notice.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, after the matinee:

DR. CAROL W. BERMAN: “ON THE COUCH WITH LEONARD:” AN ANALYSIS OF LEONARD TIMBRELL Leonard Timbrell is a fascinating character—witty and bitingly self-aware, yet strangely diffident and lacking purpose. In this discussion, psychiatrist Dr. Carol W. Berman, a specialist in personality disorders, puts the character of Leonard “on the couch”—metaphorically speaking—analyzing his personality and choices. Dr. Carol W. Berman has practiced psychiatry in New York City for 25 years and is the author of 100 Questions and Answers About Panic Disorder and Personality Disorders. She is a clinical assistant professor in psychiatry at NYU, where she earned her medical degree.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 25, after the matinee:

DR. JOHN P. HARRINGTON, AUTHOR OF THE LIFE OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYHOUSE ON GRAND STREET Dr. John P. Harrington, author of The Life of the Neighborhood Playhouse on Grand Street, charts the Playhouse’s history, with particular emphasis on its 1919 production of Mary Broome, the play’s New York premiere. Founded in 1915 by philanthropists Alice and Irene Lewisohn, and known for championing thought-provoking plays shunned by commercial producers, the Playhouse helped pave the way for the Off-Broadway movement. Harrington is Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Fordham University. He has written extensively on theatre history, with particular emphasis on Irish theatre.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, after the matinee:

PATRICIA DENISON, BARNARD COLLEGE, “LEONARD TIMBRELL AS ANGRY YOUNG MAN” Its only New York production was in 1919 at the Neighborhood Playhouse on Grand St. The Globe hailed it as “One of the cleverest plays in town…extraordinarily good entertainment…a sort of Spanish bull fight of the intellect.” Town Topics was even more enthusiastic, calling it a play “of the finest intelligence—a play for the civilized mind that is at one amusing and dramatic. Mr. Monkhouse has taken a burning subject of modern life—the strange, intricate question of the family…and he has handled this matter with a touch that is never frivolous but always light, with gaiety, incisive humor, keen precision and truth of characterization…Superbly real, intelligent and sober.”

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“ nto Us A Son Is Born has only to be sung in the wrong key to create the perfect domestic earthquake.”- Guardian, 1931 New York’s Weekly Review called MARY BROOME “An idle, impish, saucy play, a play that attracts, worries, and teases, and refuses to be sent about its business for the simple reason that its business is to pester you. It is a study in character,” referring to Leonard Timbrell who dominates the action, “and its own character is mirrored in that of its protagonist.” Leonard was a source of much controversy. The Globe’s Kenneth MacGowan described him accurately as a man “with the intellect to see through the sham moralisms of the nineteenth century but without the strength to find a morality for the twentieth.” An observation that has held true for 100 years.

In 1958, Granada Television Network broadcast MARY BROOME to commemorate the Gaiety’s 50th anniversary. The London Times wrote “the play startlingly foreshadows the realist drama of our own time,” calling Leonard Timbrell a “blood brother” to Jimmy Porter, the original Angry Young Man, a sentiment echoed by The Stage, which writes

ALLAN MONKHOUSE (1858-1936) was a dramatist, novelist, and critic known for his piquant portrayal of middle class life in northern England. He startled audiences with complex characters, who pierced societal niceties as they grappled with the contradictions of a rapidly changing world.

Monkhouse began his professional life in the cotton trade. His business experience led to a stint writing freelance market reports for local papers, which led, at age 44, to a job at the Manchester Guardian. Once at the Guardian full-time, he took to writing book and theatre reviews—even though he doubted that he would succeed. Monkhouse recalled the dread of filing his first review, telling his editor “You’ll never get another from me because it is so bad”—but seeing his words in print the next day changed his mind. Monkhouse became one of the Guardian’s most prominent critics, known especially for his weekly column “Bookman’s Notes,” offering lively literary commentary.

Monkhouse began writing plays at the encouragement of director and philanthropist Annie Horniman, who’d moved to Manchester to rejuvenate the Gaiety. (Horniman supported Dublin’s Abbey Theatre during its early years). Horniman transformed the Gaiety into England’s first regional repertory and the home of the “Manchester School”, a vigorous new style of writing. Manchester School plays portrayed modern life with unprecedented frankness, exploring the tumult of social change with both wit and humor.

Monkhouse’s first major theatrical success was MARY BROOME. The play opened at the Gaiety in 1911 to strong reviews and transferred to London in 1912. While some were troubled by the play—the Observer critic called character Leonard Timbrell “an offensive little worm”—it enjoyed a healthy run. The fuss over MARY BROOME paled in comparison to the uproar over Monkhouse’s 1924 drama THE CONQUERING HERO, a bracing examination of objection to World War I and the war’s psychological aftermath. Newspapers were flooded with letters protesting the play. It eventually became one of Monkhouse’s most popular plays.

Patricia Denison teaches dramatic literature in the departments of English and Theatre at Barnard College. In 1958, just as the “Angry Young Man” began to rage on British stages, railing against establishment hypocrisy, Granada Television broadcast Mary Broome—and critics were astounded by angry young Edwardian Leonard Timbrell. “A blood brother to George Dillon and Jimmy Porter,” declared the London Times critic, comparing him to the protagonists of John Osborne’s searing Look Back in Anger and Epitaph for George Dillon. Robert Stephens, who had played George Dillon, portrayed Leonard on the broadcast—reinforcing the link.

In light of this comparison, Patricia Denison, editor of John Osborne: A Casebook, will discuss Leonard as antecedent to the “Angry Young Man.” Join us for this thought-provoking comparison of two surprisingly similar eras and dramatic traditions.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 15, after the matinee:

JOSHUA GLENN AND MARK KINGWELL, CO-AUTHORS OF THE IDLER’S GLOSSARY Joshua Glenn and Mark Kingwell, co-authors of The Idlers’ Glossary, examine the character of Leonard Timbrell in light of the modern “idler.” Just as Leonard shocks Edwardian society by refusing to work and questioning the status quo, so the modern idler questions current work and social structures. Indeed, “to be idle” in the philosophic tradition is not to reject work, but to contemplate—and perhaps redefine—the very nature of work itself.

Joshua Glenn is a Boston-based writer, editor, and semiotics analyst. In addition to co-authoring The Idler’s Glossary, he is the co-author or co-editor of Taking Things Seriously, The Wage-Slave’s Glossary, Significant Objects, and Unbored. He is also a co-founder of the websites HiLoBrow, Significant Objects, and Semionaut. In the 1990s, he edited the philosophy and pop-culture-themed Hermenaut, described by Michael Stutz of Wired as “a scholarly journal minus the university, a sounding board for thinking folk who operate outside the ivory tower.” Glenn has a master’s degree in teaching from Boston University.

Mark Kingwell is a professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto. As a philosopher, he has focused on questions of social obligation and the role of citizenship in maintaining a just and democratic society. He is the author of several books, including Glenn Gould, Opening Gambits, Concrete Reveries, Nearest Thing to Heaven, Nothing for Granted, The World We Want, and Better Living. He is also co-editor of Rites of Way: The Politics and Poetics of Public Space. Dr. Kingwell holds a Ph.D and MPhil from Yale University.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, after the matinee:

VLASTA VRANJES, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY: MARY BROOME AND MARRIAGE IN EDWARDIAN ENGLAND The housemaid is pregnant, the second son of the household is the father: is marriage “the right thing”—given their class and personality differences? Dr. Vlasta Vranjes, a professor in the English department at Fordham, discusses Leonard and Mary’s union in terms of Edwardian marriage laws and societal expectations, which were shaped by strict class and gender roles. Dr. Vranjes is the author of English Vows: Marriage and National Identity in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture, and her current research examines literary responses to Victorian marriage legislation.