Mint Gets Sternhagen & Easton for Barrie Plays
by Ward Morehouse • May 21, 2004
The Mint Theater has enlisted two Tony winners to participate in its next production, Echoes of the War, a show composed of two short J.M. Barrie plays. Frances Sternhagen will headline The Old Lady Shows Her Medals and Richard Easton is set to star in The New Word.
The Old Lady Shows Her Medals takes place in the basement flat of Mrs. Dowey Sternhagen, a Scottish charwoman who lives and works in London. It is during World War I, and Mrs Dowey and her guests--three other charwomen whom she has invited for tea--are discussing the tactics of trench warfare with the confidence of people who have never been near the front.
Last month at the annual fundraiser for the Mint Theater held at the Lucille Lortel, the company presented a reading of three short plays, one by A.A. Milne and two by J.M. Barrie, the writer who encouraged Milne to try his hand at playwriting. Sternhagen starred in The Old Lady Shows Her Medals at that benefit.
The Old Lady Shows Her Medals takes place in the basement flat of Mrs. Dowey Sternhagen, a Scottish charwoman who lives and works in London. It is during World War I, and Mrs Dowey and her guests--three other charwomen whom she has invited for tea--are discussing the tactics of trench warfare with the confidence of people who have never been near the front.
Last month at the annual fundraiser for the Mint Theater held at the Lucille Lortel, the company presented a reading of three short plays, one by A.A. Milne and two by J.M. Barrie, the writer who encouraged Milne to try his hand at playwriting. Sternhagen starred in The Old Lady Shows Her Medals at that benefit.
The New Word also deals with impressions of Word War I. The New World and The Old Lady Shows Her Medals were published by Barrie in 1919 under the collective title Echoes of the War.
Echoes of the War will begin performances at the Mint Theater on July 6. Eleanor Reissa, who directed the benefit readings, will helm the production.