Camille Pfister
Arts and Entertainment Editor
Strap in Sewanee students, we’ve got another Sewanee Theater production coming to you this weekend! This spring show comes with a twist – it’s not in the Tennessee Williams Center like most of the shows we’ve seen. As is tradition, the spring show takes advantage of the warming Sewanee weather and moves down to Angel Park in the Sewanee Village. So, make your way down to the park and come see Big Love, April 26-29!
Big Love, written by Charles Mee, and directed by Sewanee guest director, Chris McCreary, tells the story of an Italian villa and fifty brides who flee to avoid marrying their cousins. It raises issues of gender politics, love, and domestic violence. What follows is the descriptor of the play sent to students in an email from Head of the Theater Department, Jim Crawford. “In a coastal Italian villa, passions flame, rage boils over, chaos abounds, plates break, tomatoes squish, and 49 brides kill their 49 grooms – leaving one happy couple. A contemporary take on The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus, Charles Mee’s Big Love is an epic and lyrical wave of a play that crashes upon the audience in a symphony of music, dancing, fighting, loving, and throwing yourself to the floor over and over and over…Should be a fun wedding!”
Photo Courtesy of Sewanee Theatre
In a statement made to The Purple, McCreary described what makes Big Love so special. “Big Love is a play that’s stuck with me ever since I first saw it 20 years ago, so it’s been a joy to get a chance to finally work on it with such a creative and inspiring team,” McCreary said. “It’s an epic-sized play that invites larger-than-life collaboration and imagination while dealing with the most fundamental human elements of “what does it mean to be happy?”. This cast, these designers, the production shop, and stage management team have all worked tirelessly to bring this chaotic celebration of a show to the park and we’re thrilled to share it with the community.”
If you’re looking for something fun to do this weekend, Big Love runs from Wednesday to Saturday at 7 p.m. this week. Bring a lawn chair or a blanket and let your mind travel to Italy, as you watch the epic tale of the brides and their poor grooms.
Photo courtesy of Sewanee Theatre