“The Philanderer" at Augustana College -- October 31 through November 3.
Thursday, October 31, through Sunday, November 3
Augustana College's Honkamp Myhre Black Box Theatre, 3750 Seventh Avenue, Rock Island IL
Hailed by Backstage as "an entertaining and ribald report from the battle of the sexes with plenty of sparkling Shavian wit," George Bernard Shaw's 1905 comedy The Philanderer opens the 2024-25 season of student-directed theatre at Rock Island's Augustana College's, the work a biting, rarely staged piece by the Nobel Prize-winning author of Man and Superman, Pygmalion, Major Barbara, Heartbreak House, and Saint Joan.
As The Philanderer is described by Backstage, the comedy is "based on Shaw's offstage amorous adventures. Julia Craven is a 'modern' woman of the late Victorian age who fiercely clings to a romantic attachment to Leonard Charteris, the title character, despite her professed progressive views on the independence of women and Leonard's repeated pleas to break off the relationship." As Backstage continues, Shaw's play "focuses on Leonard's attempts to extricate himself from Julia's possessive clutches to fly into the more soothing embrace of Grace Tranfield, a genuinely liberated widow who doesn't resort to Julia's histrionic wiles. Complicating matters are Julia's father, Colonel Craven, a thoroughly conventional fellow who believes he is dying of a rare liver disease, and Grace's dad, Joseph Cuthbertson, a theater critic flummoxed by the bizarre notions of the younger generation."
"After a blazing confrontation between the hero and the two women, stumbled onto by both fathers, all the parties meet again at the Ibsen Club, a gathering place for adherents to the Norwegian dramatist's revolutionary ideas. This affords Shaw plenty of opportunity to poke fun at the British reaction to Ibsen's radical tenets, which were coming into vogue at the time of the play owing to the scandalous London premiere of A Doll's House. At the club, Colonel Craven's doctor, Percy Paramore, pursues Julia with Leonard's help, and Julia's sister, the male-attired Sylvia, joins in the fun."
Directing and scenic designing The Philanderer for Augustana is college senior Allie McPeak, whose on-stage performances at the college have included roles in Tartuffe, Private Lives, The Memo, and, as the titular figure, Madea. Julia and Leonard are respectively portrayed by Max de Buys and Lydia Benesh, with McPeak's cast completed by V Bechtel, Madeline Hutchinson, Catherine Karn, Kaden Micklos, Jack Pawlak, DJ Roberts, and Megan Yarusso. And with Alyssa Ogrodny serving as production stage manager, Linnea Strack as stage manager, and Andrew Doughty as assistant stage manager, additional members of The Philanderer's creative team include: technical, sound, and lighting advisor Mike Turczynski; costume and makeup designer Anya Giordono; sound designer and assistant/associate lighting designer Jean Tegtmeyer; and lighting designer and assistant/associate sound designer Brian Danielson.
The Philanderer will be staged in Augustana College's Honkamp Myhre Black Box Theatre from October 31 through November 3, with performances Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 p.m. Admission is $5-10, and more information and tickets are available by calling (309)794-7306 and visiting Augustana.edu/arts/ticket-office.
