2022 SEASON

When two frustrated London housewives decide to rent a villa in Italy for a holiday away from their

bleak marriages, they recruit two very different English women, a young socialite and a widowed

London matron, to share the cost and experience. With the help of the Italian housekeeper and the

artist who owns the estate, they find friendship and restoration. There, among the wisteria blossoms and Mediterranean sunshine, all four bloom again-rediscovering themselves in ways that they could never have expected. The Hartford News describes this as: “The kind of play that reminds you why you love theatre.”

What happens when you mix the brilliant wit of Noel Coward with the intricate plotting of Agatha

Christie? Set during a weekend in an English country manor in 1932, Death by Design is a delightful and mysterious “mash-up” of two of the greatest English writers of all time. Edward Bennett, a playwright, and his wife, Sorrel Bennett, an actress, flee London and head to Cookham after a disastrous opening night. But various guests arrive unexpectedly-each with a long-held secret. When one is murdered, it’s left to Bridgit, the feisty Irish maid with a macabre interest in homicide, to solve the crime.

This laugh-oriented, old-fashioned melodrama is based on Wilkie Collins’s classic. This wild, fast and

funny story features a disreputable (and hilarious) villain who dispatches his adversaries with nefarious ease and even seals his wife in a madhouse to steal her fortune! He battles a wicked countess in an uproarious fight scene and engineers mock funerals but he’s terrified of the mysterious “woman in white” who escaped from the asylum to seek him out. Cheer for the damsel! Throw popcorn and boo at the villain! Don’t miss this delightful play!

A true classic by the grande dame of mysteries. A group of strangers is stranded in a boarding house

during a snowstorm and one of them is a murderer. The suspects include the married couple who run the house, a spinster with a curious background, an architect who seems better equipped to be a chef, a retired Army major and a jurist who makes life miserable for everyone. Into their midst comes a policeman on skis. Murder, mystery and intrigue from the foremost mystery writer of her time.

 The Charles Dickens holiday classic comes to life as a live 1940s radio broadcast, complete with vintage commercials for fruitcake (extra-fancy), and the magic of live sound effects and musical underscoring. A handful of actors bring dozens of characters to the stage, as the familiar story unfolds: Three ghosts take Ebenezer Scrooge on a thrilling journey to teach him the true meaning of Christmas. A charming take on a family favorite that will leave no one saying "Bah Humbug!"