Directed by Richard Warren
Production Run between June and September 2021. Date of performance to be confirmed in accordance with assessment of Covid situation.
We are in a half-empty theatre. A middle-aged man appears, with a battered suitcase and a story he is clearly keen to tell. He's a librarian in a small Dutch town, and his job is to handle the overdue books. One day a book was returned anonymously: 113 years late. Who brought it back - and why? All the librarian has to go on is a clue scribbled in a margin, and an unclaimed dry-cleaning ticket.
How does he solve this mystery? And how does it change his life? That's what he's come here tonight to tell us....
Glen Berger's 2001 one-man play is a modern fable, neatly wrapped in a detective story, with something very powerful to say about humanity.
It's a beautiful, funny, moving piece of storytelling (and no small challenge for an actor).
Critical reaction:
"The clues surface and mount, tease and taunt, and what might appear to be little more than a dull literary exploration becomes a dark and complex mystery that transcends the ages."Variety
".... one of a handful of great plays written in the last five years.... it's an astonishingly beautiful piece of writing...."Seattle Weekly
In line with our new EDI policy, we undertake an EDI impact assessment of all our artistic programming. 'Underneath the Lintel' -The character of the librarian is Jewish and elderly and there could be flexibility around race/ethnicity. Has to be played as a male character. The story includes a theme of the consequences of anti-Semitic discrimination.
Cast: Jon Elves