Download McCarter Theater Center Begins 2017 With

91 University Pl.
Princeton, NJ 08540
www.mccarter.org
609-258-2787
For more information, contact:
Tom Miller, Director of Public Relations
[email protected]
609-258-6524
MCCARTER THEATER CENTER BEGINS 2017
WITH BEDLAM’S PRODUCTIONS OF
HAMLET and SAINT JOAN IN ROTATING REPERTORY
Bedlam’s Hamlet, featuring (l-r) Tom O’Keefe, Andrus Nichols, Eric Tucker, and Edmund Lewis.
Photo: Jenny Anderson.
PRINCETON, NJ: McCarter Theatre Center is starting the New Year with a fresh look at two
of literature’s most enigmatic and dynamic characters. From January 13 – February 12,
the celebrated New York theater company, Bedlam, makes its McCarter Theatre Center
debut with their critically-acclaimed stripped down productions of William Shakespeare’s
Hamlet and George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan, in rotating repertory.
Known for their innovative, site-specific stagings, Bedlam’s Hamlet and Saint Joan are
performed by four actors playing all roles; ensemble members Eric Tucker, Andrus Nichols,
Edmund Lewis, and Tom O’Keefe rocket from character to character at a lightning-bolt’s
pace. Bedlam’s kinetic performances will bring these classics to life in McCarter’s Berlind
Theatre where stage and audience will shift from show to show, and from act to act.
In addition to traditional house seating, patrons have the opportunity to purchase seats on
stage for a closer, more intimate relationship to the action.
As Bedlam Artistic Director, Ensemble member, and Director of both Hamlet and St. Joan
describes, “For us, it’s about making the audience know they're part of the play. Their
own placement feeds the energy of the story. As the audience gets moved around,
they're sharing the space with us. There's no ‘this is your area, this is our area.’ This is
at the heart of what we do.”
ABOUT BEDLAM’s HAMLET AND SAINT JOAN
Eric Tucker and Andrus Nichols co-founded Bedlam in 2012, presenting George Bernard
Shaw’s Saint Joan on a shoestring budget with only four actors playing over 25 characters.
The show received instant recognition and was extended four times. Terry Teachout of The
Wall Street Journal was an early admirer, describing it as “Thrilling! An unforgettable show!
The most exciting George Bernard Shaw revival I’ve ever seen, bar none.”
In 2013, Bedlam produced William Shakespeare’s Hamlet with the same four actors, again
playing over 25 characters amongst themselves. Hamlet ran in repertory with Saint Joan
and both productions were then transferred for a commercial Off-Broadway run at The
Lynn Redgrave Theater in the winter of 2013/2014. Ben Brantley, the head theatre critic of
The New York Times wrote, “Every member of Bedlam hears voices. Not of God and his
saints, but of Shaw (who probably would have said that’s the same thing) and Shakespeare.
And I mean they believe they hear these playwrights, in all their sonority, telling them what
to do…anyone who listens to the eminently sane and persuasive voices of Bedlam is
destined to become a convert.”
Bedlam’s shows have been noted as Ben Brantley’s “Critics’ Picks” for The New York Times
six times, noted on The New York Times “Top Ten Best Show Lists” two times, as well as
those of The Wall Street Journal and Time Magazine respectively. The Wall Street Journal
also noted Eric Tucker as “Director of the Year” in 2014. Bedlam has won two Irne Awards,
two Off Broadway Alliance Awards and an Obie Grant. Bedlam has also been nominated for
two Lucille Lortel awards, a Drama League award, and four Elliot Norton awards, winning
for Best Visiting Production and Best Ensemble for Saint Joan.
Hi-res photos from previous productions of Hamlet and Saint Joan may be accessed here.
For more about Bedlam, Hamlet, and Saint Joan, visit McCarter’s production minisite.
ABOUT THE CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM
Edmund Lewis (Polonius/Horatio and others in Hamlet; Dauphin/John de Stogumber and
others in Saint Joan) was seen most recently in Bedlam’s acclaimed off-Broadway hit Sense
& Sensibility. Prior to that, he played various characters in New York Animals (written by
Steven Sater) and appeared as Malvolio in Bedlam’s one play/two ways repertory of Twelfth
Night and What You Will. A founding member of the company, Edmund acted in the original
award-winning runs of Saint Joan and Hamlet, first at the Access Theater and then offBroadway at the Lynn Redgrave Theater. Other roles include Sebastian in The Tempest
(A.R.T., co-directed by Aaron Posner and Teller); Sackville and Mr. Harris in The Libertine
(Fools’ Theatre, directed by Eric Tucker); Mark in The Philadelphia, Kafka in Words, Words,
Words, and Sir Richard Attenborough in Time Flies (Bang Theatre Collective).
Andrus Nichols (Gertrude/Ophelia and others in Hamlet; Joan in Saint Joan) was most
recently seen in Ivo Van Hove’s A View From The Bridge at The Kennedy Center in D.C. and
The Ahmanson Theatre in L.A. Off-Broadway: Sense & Sensibility (Bedlam; Drama League
nom., Best Revival; Off-Broadway Alliance Award winner), Hamlet, Saint Joan (Bedlam;
Lucille Lortel nom., Outstanding Lead Actress; Off Broadway Alliance Award, Best Revival).
New York: Sense & Sensibility, The Seagull, Twelfth Night, What You Will (Bedlam); Hello
From Bertha (Pooks Hill); Hamlet (Shakespeare Forum); The Libertine (Fools’ Theater).
Regional: Hamlet, Saint Joan (Bedlam/Olney Theater Center/Central Square Theater; Helen
Hayes and Elliot Norton noms, Outstanding Lead Actress; IRNE Award, Outstanding Visiting
Performer); Hamlet (title role), Iphigenia and Other Daughters (We Players/Alcatraz
Island); Julius Ceasar; The Rainmaker; The Importance of Being Earnest; others. Andrus
cofounded Bedlam with Eric Tucker in 2012. www.andrus-nichols.com
Tom O’Keefe (Claudius/Rosencrantz and others in Hamlet; Cauchon/Poulengey and others
in Saint Joan) Off Broadway: Tamburlaine the Great, Bedlam’s Hamlet and Saint Joan. Other
New York: Dead Dog Park, Bedlam's Twelfth Night and What You Will, The Best of
Everything, A Hard Wall at High Speed, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, The Libertine.
Regional: Outside Mullingar, Richard II, The Taster, Measure for Measure, From Orchids to
Octopi, Humble Boy, Questa. TV: Shades of Blue, The Path, CSI, Criminal Minds, E.R., The Shield,
Rules of Engagement, Drake & Josh. Film: A New Tomorrow, Avenging Angel, CrashN’Burn, Fill
Your Heart with French Fries (short). BA, Pennsylvania State University. JD, Boston
University School of Law. Proud member of SAG/AFTRA and Actors’ Equity Association.
Tom-OKeefe.com
Eric Tucker (Director/Hamlet in Hamlet; Dunois/Warwick and others in Saint Joan) Wall
Street Journal Director of the Year 2014. Off-Broadway: Bedlam’s Sense & Sensibility (offBroadway Alliance Award; Lortel nom., Best Director; Drama League nom., Best Revival); A
Midsummer Night’s Dream (Drama League nom. Best Revival; WSJ Best Classical Production
2015; New York Times Critics’ Pick); Bedlam’s Saint Joan (New York Times/Time Magazine
top 10, Off-Broadway Alliance Best Revival 2014); Bedlam’s Hamlet (New York Times top 10,
Time Out NY and Backstage Critics’ Pick); Tina Packer’s Women of Will; The Belle of Belfast.
For Bedlam: Dead Dog Park, New York Animals (world premiere by Steven Sater/Burt
Bacharach), Twelfth Night, What You Will (New York Times Critics’ Picks), The Seagull (WSJ
Best Classical Production 2014), Sense & Sensibility (New York Times top 10; New York Times
/WSJ/Time Out Critics’ Pick), Saint Joan, and Hamlet (NYC and Tour, Elliott Norton
Outstanding Visiting Production and Outstanding Ensemble, Boston Globe Top 10). Other:
Sense & Sensibility (Folger); Copenhagen (Central Square Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s
Dream, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (HVSF); The Libertine (IRNE nomination, Best
Director); Hamlet (with William Hurt); Mate (The Actors’ Gang), Macbeth (Best Overall
Production and Best Director noms L.A. Weekly). Eric received his MFA from the Trinity Rep
Conservatory. He resides in New York City where he is Artistic Director of Bedlam.
John McDermott (Set Design) Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: Macbeth, Measure For
Measure, As You Like It, The Winter’s Tale, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Arabian Nights.
Shakespeare and Company: Red Velvet, The Comedy of Errors, An Unexpected Man, Sotto
Voce, The Taming, Ugly Lies the Bone. Folger: As You Like It, Sense & Sensibility. OffBroadway: The Singing Forest (New York Shakespeare Festival); Play Yourself (New York
Theater Workshop); This Thing of Darkness, White People (Atlantic Theater Company);
Hamlet, Saint Joan, New York Animals, Sense & Sensibility, The Seagull, Dead Dog Park
(Bedlam); Dry Land, Everything is Ours, Fish Eye (Colt Coeur). Rattlestick Playwrights
Theater: 25 designs including 3C, Lady, The Undeniable Sound of Right Now, The Revisionist,
Saved or Destroyed. Assistant Professor, Adelphi University.
Les Dickert (Lighting Design) designs for a diverse range of live performance, spanning
contemporary and Shakespearean theater, modern dance, classical ballet, and international
performance art. Previous collaborations with Bedlam include Sense & Sensibility, The
Seagull, and New York Animals. Broadway: Wrong Mountain (Assistant), High Society
(Assistant). Off-Broadway: Atlantic Theater, Rattlestick Theater, P73, Theater Row,
Ensemble Studio Theater, In Violet Rep, others. Regional: Shakespeare and Company, Great
Lakes Theater Festival, Geva Theater, Perseverance Theater, Syracuse Stage, Triad Stage,
Arden Theater, others. Dance: White Oak Dance Project, San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet,
Miami City Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Joffrey Ballet. International: Centre Pompidou; La Scala; and
the National Ballets of England, Denmark, Australia, Belgium, Canada, and Russia. Les is a
graduate of the Yale School of Drama.
Trampas Thompson (Fight Director) is thrilled to be collaborating again with his friends
from Bedlam. In addition to choreographing the original critically acclaimed run of Bedlam’s
Hamlet, his theatrical work includes Women of Will for Tina Packer and Richard III for
Shakespeare Dallas. Trampas has been a professional stuntman and stunt coordinator in
film and television for over 20 years. His 100 + credits include four Pirates of the Caribbean
films, National Treasure, and Zombieland, among many others. Trampas was Michael
Keaton’s stunt double in the film Birdman and recently joined Mr. Keaton again as his stunt
double on Spider-Man: Homecoming, due in theaters next summer. He is a member of SAGAFTRA and the Directors Guild of America. Complete credits can be found on IMDb.
About McCarter Theatre Center
Led by Artistic Director/Resident Playwright Emily Mann and Managing Director Timothy J.
Shields, McCarter Theatre Center is a leading destination for playwrights, actors, and
directors to collaborate on ambitious world premieres, re-imagined classics, adaptations,
and developmental workshops. Awarded the 1994 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional
Theatre, McCarter has evolved into a nationally and internationally acclaimed theatre
recognized for its first-rate productions, daring world premieres, and lasting contributions
to the American theatrical canon. The theatre is celebrated for its emphasis on the creation
and development of new work, marked especially by an on-going program of commissions,
an annual artists retreat, and the fostering of long term relationships with emerging and
established playwrights.
Among the noteworthy dramatists whose work has received world premieres,
developmental productions, and workshops at McCarter are: Edward Albee, Tarell Alvin
McCraney, Sarah Treem, Marina Carr, Lydia Diamond, John Guare, Nilo Cruz, Christopher
Durang, Regina Taylor, Beth Henley, Danai Gurira, and Athol Fugard. Many, including
Eclipsed, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (2013 Tony Award for Best Play), Having
Our Say, Anna in the Tropics, Crowns, Valley Song, and Yellowman, received original
workshops at McCarter before moving on to Broadway and/or become some of the most
frequently produced plays in the American theater. McCarter is equally recognized for its
reinvestigations of the classic canon including Fiasco Theater’s reimagined production of
Into the Woods, Stephen Wadsworth’s acclaimed adaptations of the Marivaux Trilogy and
Beaumarchais’ Figaro plays, Brian Friel’s Translations, and Emily Mann’s adaptations of
Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba. Next up, McCarter Theatre Center’s 2017 Theatre Series continues with Ken Ludwig’s
adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express (world premiere), and Lynn
Nottage’s Intimate Apparel.
Bedlam’s productions of Saint Joan and Hamlet – Production Facts
Creative, Production, and Design Team
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw
Direction: Eric Tucker
Set Design: John McDermott
Lighting Design: Les Dickert
Fight Director: Trampas Thompson
Production Stage Manager: Diane Healy
Director of Production: David York
Resident Producer: Debbie Bisno
Managing Director: Timothy J. Shields
Artistic Director/Resident Playwright: Emily Mann
CAST
Eric Tucker:
Hamlet in Hamlet
Dunois/Warwick and others in Saint Joan
Andrus Nichols:
Gertrude/Ophelia and others in Hamlet
Joan in Saint Joan
Edmund Lewis:
Polonius/Horatio and others in Hamlet
Dauphin/John de Stogumber and others in Saint Joan
Tom O’Keefe:
Claudius/Rosencrantz and others in Hamlet
Cauchon/Poulengey and others in Saint Joan
The Actors and Stage Manager in this production are members of Actors’ Equity
Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.
McCarter is supported by Princeton University, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts,
and over 3,000 individuals, corporations, and foundations. McCarter Theatre is located at 91
University Place in Princeton, NJ. For more information, please visit www.mccarter.org.
Hamlet and Saint Joan are made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council
on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts
and by funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Saint Joan is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.
Opening Night sponsored by Novo Nordisk.
Ticket Information and Performance Schedule
Performances for Hamlet and Saint Joan run January 13 – February 12 in the Berlind
Theatre. Single tickets range from $25 - $74 and are on sale now online at mccarter.org, by
phone at (609) 258-2787, or in person at the McCarter Theatre Ticket Office, located at 91
University Place in Princeton.
Hamlet runs 3 hours and 10 minutes, including two intermissions.
Saint Joan runs 3 hours, including two intermissions.
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
January 13
January 14
January 15
8 p.m.
8 p.m.
2 p.m.
SAINT JOAN
HAMLET
SAINT JOAN
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Saturday
Sunday
January 17
January 18
January 19
January 20
January 21
January 21
January 22
7:30 p.m.
7:30 p.m.
7:30 p.m.
8 p.m.
3 p.m.
8 p.m.
2 p.m.
HAMLET
SAINT JOAN
HAMLET
SAINT JOAN
HAMLET
SAINT JOAN
HAMLET
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Saturday
Sunday
Sunday
January 24
January 25
January 26
January 27
January 28
January 28
January 29
January 29
7:30 p.m.
7:30 p.m.
7:30 p.m.
8 p.m.
3 p.m.
8 p.m.
2 p.m.
7:30 p.m.
SAINT JOAN
HAMLET
SAINT JOAN
HAMLET
SAINT JOAN
HAMLET
HAMLET
SAINT JOAN
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Saturday
Sunday
February 1
February 2
February 3
February 4
February 4
February 5
7:30 p.m.
7:30 p.m.
8 p.m.
3 p.m.
8 p.m.
2 p.m.
SAINT JOAN
HAMLET
SAINT JOAN
HAMLET
SAINT JOAN
HAMLET
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Saturday
Sunday
Sunday
February 7
February 8
February 9
February 10
February 11
February 11
February 12
February 12
7:30 p.m.
7:30 p.m.
7:30 p.m.
8 p.m.
3 p.m.
8 p.m.
2 p.m.
7:30 p.m.
HAMLET
HAMLET
SAINT JOAN
HAMLET
SAINT JOAN
HAMLET
SAINT JOAN
HAMLET
Dialogue on Drama
Post-show Discussion
Pride Night
Post-show Discussion
Open Captioned
Audio Described
ASL Interpreted
Seating Options
Each play offers patrons a choice of Fixed Seating OR OnStage Seating. Patrons have the
choice to purchase tickets and watch either or both shows in one of two ways: 1) sitting in
the house in a fixed location or 2) sitting on stage for a more interactive, up-close-andpersonal relationship to the action.

Onstage Ticket option: Each onstage ticket holder has the opportunity to see the
play—while sitting on stage—from multiple perspectives within any one
performance. The seating configuration and audience point of view will shift for
each act of the play (in both Hamlet and Saint Joan). Onstage ticket holders will be
asked to gather in the lobby during both intermissions as the onstage seating is
reconfigured for the next act. NOTE: there are a limited number of Onstage seats
available for each play; Onstage seating is general admission.

Fixed Ticket Option: Patrons are assigned to a fixed seat inside the theater in the
traditional seating format. Patrons will stay in the same assigned seat throughout
the duration of the play. NOTE: a select number of fixed seat ticket holders may be
invited to sit on stage for one act at each performance (subject to availability).
Special Events and Engagement Programs
Dialogue on Drama
Join us for a special post-show discussion with director Eric Tucker and Andrus Nichols (cofounders of Bedlam) after the Sunday, January 22 2 p.m. matinee performance. This is a free
event, no RSVP req.
Post-Show Discussions
Post-show discussions at McCarter are highly interactive audience-based conversations
facilitated by a member of McCarter’s artistic staff, often featuring cast members. These
discussions focus on a range of topics including how artistic choices were made for the
production, the actors’ process, and reflections and questions from audience members.
Post-show discussions occur directly following the 7:30 p.m. performance on Wednesday,
January 25 and following the 2 p.m. performance on Sunday, January 29.
Inside Story
Join us 45 minutes before any performance for a talk led by a member of McCarter’s artistic
staff. Hear about what inspired the play, its unique creation and style, and much more. All
Inside Story talks will take place in the Berlind Theatre unless otherwise noted in the lobby
upon arrival.
###