Granite Playwrights opens its show with a send-up of the famous film, “It Happened One Night.” Lindsay’s play, “It Happened One Afternoon,” is set in Chicago, 1938. Wendy Williams yearns to be free to make her own dumb choices. But her movie star brother, Gabe Clarkson, wants to save her, and Nick, her cop boyfriend, wants to control her. Meanwhile, two young ladies who work the nightshift at the Majestic Arms Hotel want to drive her out into the gangster-crowded streets so they can fawn over and have Gabe Clarkson all to themselves.
Granite Playwrights’ second offering is a “must see,” for anyone who has tried to thread his or her way through the college application process. “The College Game,” by George Kelly, pits five top high school scholars, against each other, on a TV game show. Each contestant vies for a coveted acceptance to the Ivy League. As each of the contestants prepares to answer a series of questions and play The College Game, the pressure is palpable. The answers to the questions asked belie the true feelings of stress that permeate each of the applicants. What they reveal illustrates what college-bound students really feel about the entire process.
Rounding out the evening of One-Acts, is a revival of “Soup’s On,” by Lindsay, an intriguing and amusing look at a family in crisis. Two brothers who work through a long-standing familial, national, international, and existential tension, as they prepare a dinner of soup, bread, wine, a revelation.
Granite Playwrights’ presentation of Three One-Acts, will continue a second week at The Hatbox. The showtimes are Friday and Saturday at 7:30, followed by a matinee at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
The Granite Playwrights is a Concord-based writing group and production company, dedicated to producing original plays by local playwrights. Previous Hatbox productions include the Beer, Food, Hope and Baseball; The Bartailed Godwit and other plays; and Loose Connections, and The Great Atlantic and Pacific Shakespeare Company. Find us on Facebook.
Hatbox Theatre is a dynamic live performance arts space with a mission to service and foster a cooperative community to develop unique, intimate experiences for audiences and artists. Hatbox Theatre is located at the Steeplegate Mall, 270 Loudon Road, Concord.
