Remy Bumppo Announces 2013/2014 Season

Remy Bumppo Theatre Company's 17th season begins with the work of one of the most beloved of all English authors and ends with one of the most horrific of all events, with a classic British mystery in the middle.

"All three plays are mysteries about the human condition, in very different modes," says Remy Bumppo Artistic Director Nick Sandys. "Every year, in every play we produce, we endeavor to figure out why we humans behave the way we do, be it funny or serious or apparently inhuman. These three plays - a comedy, a thriller and a history - give us the chance to experience life journeys that are not our own, but which contain essential mysteries to which we can all relate and which we want to try to solve or understand, like the characters themselves."

Opening the season in October will be the U.S. Premiere of a new adaptation of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. "It's Austen's least-known novel," says Sandys, "but perhaps her most outright comedic." The tale of a young book-loving woman goes back and forth between the Gothic novels she is reading and her actual life, a different theatrical style for Remy Bumppo and one that not only provides adventure, humor and romance, but is also surprisingly fitting for the Halloween season.

Over the holiday period, Remy Bumppo will present J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls, a drawing-room mystery with many a twist, seldom done in the U.S. but a staple of English theatre. "It's a great British mystery, a thriller with a real spiritual edge," says Sandys. "With Priestley, there is always an element that plays with the mysteries of time, as well as a strong moral undercurrent almost Dickensian in tone."

The spring production will be the Midwest Premiere of Tadeusz Slobodzianek's Our Class, a riveting look at events in a besieged Polish village, seen through the eyes of ten classmates, which won Poland's highest literary award, the Nike Prize. "I believe this is a very important play," says Sandys, "an incredibly powerful theatrical journey into the heart of the 20th century and its aftermath, focusing on the Holocaust from a perspective not seen before on stage. Like all great theatre, it involves you in small human choices that have huge repercussions."

In addition to the subscription series, Remy Bumppo will also reprise five performances of Sandys' own adaptation and solo performance of Charles Dickens' The Chimes in December. All four presentations will be at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave.

Subscriptions will go on sale in March. Single ticket sales will open in August.