Phyl

Let’s Talk About Sex:

Cicely Hamilton (1872-1952) wrote several plays tackling social issues.  But it was DIANA OF DOBSON’S that caught London’s eye and heart with it’s light touch and romantic bent in spite of it’s consideration ‘serious issues.’  First performed in London in 1908, the play was “accepted as a true picture of the shop-assistant’s life,” to quote from a 1908 press clipping that, “convinced people that something should be done about it.”

Crooked Cross

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CROOKED CROSS draws us into the story of the Klugers, facing the economic and political challenges of life in a quaint village in the Bavarian mountainside between Christmas 1932 and June 1933.

Sylvia “Sally” Carson, was born in 1901 in Surrey. For several years she was a publisher’s reader and taught dance; during this time she frequently went to stay in Bavaria with friends. It was first in Germany and then back in England that she wrote her trilogy of novels including Crooked Cross in 1934, followed by The Prisoner (1936) and A Traveler Passes By (1938) which continue the story of the Kluger family. In 1938 she married Eric Humphries who ran the Bradford works of the publisher Lund Humphries, founded by his father. Together they had three children. Tragically, Sally died of breast cancer in 1941.

Yours Unfaithfully (London)

In 2016-17, Mint Theater Company presented the World Premiere of Yours Unfaithfully, an “un-romantic comedy” by Miles Malleson, published in 1933 but never produced. In 2023, Mint Artistic Director Jonathan Bank directed a London-based cast in the U.K. Premiere of this daring play about polyamory.

Becomes A Woman

Betty Smith burst onto the literary scene in 1943 with her debut novel, A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN. The New York Times called it “the best first novel I have seen in many a moon…here is a book worth getting excited about and an author worth cheering.”

Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn endures through generations as one of the biggest bestsellers of the twentieth century. Yet, while Smith found her greatest fame as a novelist, she was most passionate about her work as the playwright of over 70 one-act and full-length dramas, commenting in 1937: “I write plays because I’d rather do that than anything else in the world.” Smith’s plays share with her novels a focus upon working-class women persevering through poverty to craft their own narratives of self-determination, often fueled by their engagement with reading and books.

Chekhov/Tolstoy: Love Stories

Mint Theater Company presents a program of short plays adapted from stories by two of the world’s greatest authors, Anton Chekhov and Leo Tolstoy. These dramatic adaptations are from one of our favorite playwrights, Miles Malleson, author of Mint productions, Conflict and Yours Unfaithfully, both New York Times Critic’s Picks.

As a playwright, screenwriter, director, producer, and character actor, Miles Malleson  (1888-1969) established himself as a theatre artist of dazzling versatility. Yet while Malleson “acted the fool most memorably” in dozens of plays and films, he was also a playwright of provocative wit, searching insight and, as described by The Manchester Guardian, a sense of “ethical passion” drawing upon a lifelong engagement in progressive politics.

The Mountains Look Different

The Mountains Look Different is the story of Bairbre’s return home to Ireland, after a dozen hard years in London working the streets. Three days ago, she married Tom, who knows nothing of her past. Together they hope to settle with Tom’s father on his farm, and live a simple life far from the temptations and torments of the sinful city. But soon they will learn that it’s not easy for anyone to escape their past, even among the rocks and ruins of the mountainside.

Micheál mac Liammóir was a legendary figure, his death in 1978 was front-page news in the Irish Times for three days running. His obituary described him as “the dominant figure in the Irish theatrical world for almost half a century” . “Hundreds Mourn MacLiammóir” was the headline describing the scene in the church the day of his funeral. Ireland’s President Dr. Hillery, “joined actors, artists, writers, Irish language enthusiasts and hundreds of people who had simply enjoyed his performances in mourning.”

The Price of Thomas Scott

Mr. Scott and his wife, son and daughter have long hoped to sell the declining family business so they can pursue dreams now out of reach. When a buyer finally appears and makes a rich offer—Scott hesitates—he doesn’t approve of his buyers plans for the building.

Elizabeth Baker

The Suitcase Under the Bed

The Suitcase Under the Bed, so named for the place where all of Teresa Deevy’s writing was stored for decades, prior to the launch of Mint Theater Company’s “Deevy Project”, featured four short plays, three of which were World Premieres. Deevy, thanks in part to the Mint, is now recognized as “One of Ireland’s best and most neglected dramatists.” (Irish Times)

STRANGE BIRTH (World Premiere)
Sara Meade works at a small rooming house where she observes with determined detachment the heartache of each resident; a caution against falling in love herself. Suddenly the day’s post brings a letter that challenges her resolve.

TERESA DEEVY
(1894-1963)

Yours Unfaithfully

An “un-romantic comedy” about the price of free love, YOURS UNFAITHFULLY is an insightful, intelligent and exceptionally intimate peek behind the closed doors of an open marriage. Stephen and Anne, blissfully happy for eight years, are committed to living up to their ideals. When Stephen, a writer who isn’t writing, begins to sink into a funk of unproductive moodiness, Anne encourages him to seek out a fresh spark. Can their marriage survive uncompromising generosity, sacrifice and love? More than the story of an unconventional couple, the play is about what happens when our ideals clash with our emotions.

William Miles Malleson (1888-1969)

A Day By the Sea

After our acclaimed production of A PICTURE OF AUTUMN, Mint revisited the work of playwright N.C. Hunter with A DAY BY THE SEA. A warm, human, and often humorous depiction of the ‘crisis’ of middle age, the play tells the story of Julian Anson, a once-promising Foreign Service employee, who confronts professional disappointment and personal failure while picnicking along the English seaside.

N.C. Hunter (1908-1971) was one of the leading English dramatists of the 1950s and early 1960s. As theatrical revolution—spearheaded by John Osborne and his school of “angry young men”—exploded around him, Hunter kept his head down and provided moving portraits of a people questioning their own purpose in chaotic post-war England.

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