I used to teach girls this age and I think I speak for teachers everywhere when I say . . . aaaarrrrgghhh! I first encountered this startling image walking up Angell Street where a bus shelter features a large poster for the play. A flashback ensued: palpitations, shortness of breath, the smell of napalm.
So kudos to photographer Peter Goldberg (and anyone else who had a hand in art-directing or styling the scene). Well done.
Lillian Hellman’s provocative play “The Children’s Hour” opens Thursday at the Gamm Theatre, directed by Rachel Walshe.
Setting: 1930s New England, a girls’ boarding school. Mary, a disgruntled and notoriously deceitful student, thinks she’s being treated unfairly. Stopping at nothing to get even, she starts a rumor that the headmistresses, Karen and Martha, are having an affair. The ensuing scandal throws the women’s careers into chaos and pushes relationships to the brink, with surprising and devastating consequences for everyone. A controversial success when it opened on Broadway in 1934, Hellman’s groundbreaking play about the culture of fear and the power of public shaming is startlingly relevant today.
And who are these dear creatures? Up front is Grace Viveiros. In the back, from left to right: Abigail Klipfel, Ally Gower, Evelise Gomez, Kate Fitzgerald, and Haley Pine.
Play runs January 12 thru February 12, Gamm Theatre, 172 Exchange Street, Pawtucket, (directions)