PHILADELPHIA – Now in the midst of a record-breaking year, Lantern Theater Company announces the productions scheduled for its 2012/13 season. The Lantern opens its 19th season with a remount of David Ives’ New Jerusalem, The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656, the best-selling play in the company’s history and featuring the original cast and creative team from the original 2011 production. This limited return engagement is followed by the Philadelphia premiere of The Liar, also by Ives, a sophisticated comedy of lies and love adapted from the French play by Pierre Corneille. Mid-season, the Lantern completes Martin McDonagh’s Leenane Trilogy (A Skull in Connemara, The Lonesome West) with the darkly comic The Beauty Queen of Leenane. Lantern Associate Artistic Director Kathryn MacMillan will direct both The Liar and The Beauty Queen of Leenane. In the spring, Lantern Artistic Director Charles McMahon directs Henry V, William Shakespeare’s epic journey through royal courts and battlefields. The season concludes with Heroes, a playful, bawdy, and heartbreakingly funny comedy by Tom Stoppard, adapted from Gerald Sibleyras’ Le Vent De Peupliers and directed by Lantern affiliated artist M. Craig Getting.

“Lantern Theater Company is pleased to present this new season of plays, rife with all the elegant and comprehensive absurdity that humanity can offer – plays that illustrate the full, diverse, and engaging range of human experience,” says Charles McMahon. “Without human folly there could be no drama. Storytelling would be unnecessary and history would cease to be instructive. Luckily for us, we live in an era of staggering, titanic foolishness. The folly of youth is never more hilariously depicted than in The Liar. Henry V gives us a searing and stirring look at the folly of empire. The Beauty Queen of Leenane and Heroes immerse us in the bittersweet folly of middle and old age. And we will revisit the folly of genius with our remounting of last year’s record-breaking smash hit New Jerusalem.”

Lantern Theater Company is located at St. Stephen’s Theater at 10th and Ludlow Streets in Center City Philadelphia.  For more information, visit www.lanterntheater.org or call (215) 829-0395.  4-Play Subscriptions and Flex Packages are now available for $72 - $136, with discounts available for students, seniors and groups of 10 or more.  Single tickets go on sale in August 2012. New Jerusalem is not part of the 4-Play Subscription Series, but Lantern subscribers will receive an exclusive 10-25% discount on all tickets.

Lantern Theater Company’s 2012/13 Mainstage Season

New Jerusalem, The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656
September 4 - 23, 2012 (Press Opening: Wed, Sept. 5, 2012, 7 p.m.)
LIMITED RETURN ENGAGEMENT
By David Ives
Directed by Charles McMahon

As the Inquisition bears down on them, a small Jewish community flees Portugal to find a tenuous peace in seemingly liberal Amsterdam.  But Spinoza, a favorite son of the community and the rabbi’s heir apparent, is a revolutionary thinker.  When the boldness of his ideas strains the bounds of Amsterdam’s professed tolerance, it leads to a dangerous confrontation between powerful political forces and his own beloved community.  Based on true events in the life of one of the greatest philosophers in history, David Ives’ engaging drama challenges traditional political and religious thinking with conviction, passion, and wit.  The cast includes Sam Henderson as Baruch de Spinoza and David Bardeen as Rabbi Mortera, with David Blatt, Jake Blouch, Seth Reichgott, Kittson O’Neill, and Mary Tuomanen.

The Liar
November 1 – 25, 2012 (Press Opening: Wed, Nov. 7, 2012, 7 p.m.)
PHILADELPHIA PREMIERE
By David Ives
Adapted from the comedy by Pierre Corneille
Directed by Kathryn MacMillan

From the author of the Lantern’s smash hit New Jerusalem and the Broadway comedy Venus in Fur comes this sophisticated, playful adaptation of the popular French classic.  Charming, handsome, and an incorrigible liar, Dorante has come to Paris seeking pleasure.  He falls head over heels for the beautiful Clarice, but mistakes her name for that of her best friend, Lucrece.  After lying his way into a world of trouble, can Dorante lie his way back out again?  Wildly clever and a bit naughty, the wordplay and swordplay of The Liar make for an evening that’s filled with delights!

The Beauty Queen of Leenane
January 10 – February 3, 2013 (Press Opening: Wed, Jan. 16, 2013, 7 p.m.)
By Martin McDonagh
Directed by Kathryn MacMillan

Electrifying playwright Martin McDonagh gives us this Tony Award-winning satire of the skirmishes and silent feuds between mothers and daughters.  In a small town in western Ireland, spinster Maureen Folan lives with her diabolically helpless mother Mag.  Maureen’s married sisters escaped long ago, leaving Maureen stuck at home, chafing against Mag’s cunning manipulations and lamenting her missed chances.  When romance blossoms between Maureen and the sweet, uncomplicated Pato Dooley, it pits mother against daughter, setting the stage for an explosive, wildly funny, and deeply affecting finish.

Henry V
March 14 – April 14, 2013 (Press Opening: Wed, Mar. 20, 2013, 7 p.m.)
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Charles McMahon

Shakespeare takes us on an epic journey through royal courts and battlefields, conjuring a vast world through the suggestive power of his incomparable language.  Following a bloody civil war, charismatic young Henry, England’s new king, sets out to repair his fractured nation with a common purpose: war with France.  But unprepared and outnumbered, Henry’s small army of bumbling country rubes and petty thieves seem to be no match for the slick French war machine.  While Henry sets out to secure his crown and reputation, he finds humility, true leadership, and the power to inspire a nation.  From the rousing speeches to the dark eve of Agincourt, Henry V is both adventurous and introspective, a tale of raw power punctuated by surprising moments of comedy.

Heroes
May 16 - June 9, 2013 (Press Opening: Wed, May 22, 7 p.m.)
PHILADELPHIA PREMIERE
By Tom Stoppard
Adapted from Gerald Sibleyras’ Le Vent De Peupliers
Directed by M. Craig Getting

Gustave, Phillippe, and Henri—war heroes, all—are plotting an escape.  They’ve had enough of the tortures of their confinement: dictatorial captors, untrustworthy fellow prisoners, and far too many birthday parties.  Indeed, life in a retired soldiers’home is almost unbearable!  So, while keeping each other company on the back patio, they hatch a plan to escape to Indochina, or at least to a picnic under the poplars on a nearby hill.  Winner of London’s prestigious Olivier Award for Best New Comedy, Tom Stoppard’s adaptation of this popular French play is playful, bawdy, and heartbreakingly funny.

2012/13 Special Events

Lantern Theater Company: In Conversation(free for all ticket holders)

Directors: In Conversation – Audiences get a first-hand look into each production’s design and rehearsal process in this moderated Q&A with each play’s director. (Week 1 Fridays, 7 p.m.)

Artists: In Conversation – This post-show discussion offers an opportunity to talk with the creative artists involved with each production. (Week 1 Sundays, after 2 p.m. performance)

Artistic Director: In Conversation – Artistic Director Charles McMahon and Associate Artistic Director Kathryn MacMillan talk with audiences about what makes the Lantern distinctive, from choice of plays and artists to how the theater space itself informs the company’s performance style. (Week 2 Fridays, 7 p.m.)

Open Captioned Performances – Captions that translate dialogue and other sounds will be displayed on an LED screen located near the stage. Open Captioning is helpful to the deaf and hard-of-hearing as well as people whose second language is English. (Week 3 Fridays, 8 p.m. and Week 3 Saturdays, 2 p.m.)