Metropolitan Playhouse Virtual Playhouse Presents

A Screened Reading of THE SLEEPING CAR

Written by WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS

Directed by ALEX ROE

Featuring DYLAN BROWN, KELLY COOPER, KEN FERRIGNI, ANDREW FIRDA, SIDNEY FORTNER, BEN GOUGEON, MICHAEL A. JONES, BEX ODORISIO, & PETER TEDESCHI

Graphic Settings by MEDUSA STUDIO

Talkback with PAUL PETRIE, PHD, Editor of The Howellsian (newsletter of the William Dean Howells Society) & Professor of English at Southern Connecticut State University

www.metropolitanplayhose.org/virtualplayhouse

January 23, 2021, 8 p.m.

Let’s hop back on the train with WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS and tuck into THE SLEEPING CAR. Sadly, almost no one can get any sleep due to the nonstop yakking of Agnes, young mother full of anxieties, all of which she has to voice. Loudly.

She, baby, and aunt are off to meet up with Agnes’s husband and her brother, whom she hasn’t seen in 12 years. He went out to California! Will she recognize him? Will he be fully bearded, wearing a cowboy hat and carrying pistols? Worrying, fussing, fearing, all alta voce despite the increasing complaints from those trying to get a night’s rest. That sets her off on a string of strident apologies.

Auntie and baby are fast asleep. They must be quite used to this behavior. More Marx-Brothers type chaos continues with the entry of Agnes’s husband and her brother. They take turns peeking into everyone else’s sleeping berths in search of the baby or Agnes. At one point, an unlucky gentleman has been mistaken multiple times for a wife, a baby, an old friend, a brother, and a husband.

Written in 1882, this play is part nonsensical farce, part comment on the growth of the U.S. and the varied behaviors of people from the far reaches of the nation. No internet then. Anyplace more than a short train ride away was truly mysterious and daunting. The cast did an awesome job, especially BEX ODORISIO as the incredibly annoying chatterbox Agnes, and MICHAEL A. JONES as the unbelievably patient passenger who was mistaken for everything but the kitchen sink. A special shout-out to MEDUSA STUDIO for the truly excellent graphics, backgrounds, and animations. Very well done!

-Karen D’Onofrio-