ENEMIES at East Lynne Theater Company

East Lynne Theater Company presents Enemies, a one-act written by the married couple Neith Boyce and Hutchins Hapgood. With clever dialogue, the play explores a modern, nontraditional, non-monogamous marriage. It was on the veranda of Hapgood and Boyce's rented cottage in Provincetown, MA on July 15, 1915, that the Provincetown Players began by presenting its first evening of innovative one-acts. Under another husband-and-wife team, George Cram Cook and Susan Glaspell, the Players moved the plays of Eugene ONeill, Glaspell and others to New York City from 1916 1922. Enemies was originally performed by Boyce and Hapgood for the Players. This is not a Zoom performance, but a fully-staged reading, with costumes and props, that was filmed in a Manhattan apartment where the two performers, Veronique Hurley and Mat Labotka, have been sequestered. The director, James Rana, rehearsed the couple via Zoom, and Hurley is the editor. Enemies premieres on Thursday, March 4 at 8:00 PM and will be available anytime through 11:59 PM on Sunday, March 7 on ELTCs YouTube Channel https://www.tinyurl.com/ELTCYouTube. ELTC strongly recommends that it be watched directly on YouTube on a flat screen tv, or that the computer be connected to the tv with an HDMI cable, so Enemies can be seen on a larger screen with better sound, and even use Closed Caption if needed. Its free, but donations are appreciated: https://eastlynnetheatercompany.ticketleap.com/. Veronique Hurley has performed in several ELTC production: Biography, Silent Sky, The Rainmaker, and the virtual reading of Historic Spout-Offs. Off-Broadway credits include "The Tempest," "As You Like It," "Twelfth Night," and "Hunting and Gathering" at The Glass Eye. Regionally, she's performed at The Hartford Stage Company, Cape May Stage, and Playhouse on Park. Mat Labotka was also in The Rainmaker and Historic Spout Offs. Hes an alum of Chicago's Second City Conservatory whose New York credits include Henry in "The King's Face," Albert in "Relativity of Love," and Victor in "The Star and The Fire." He also performs in commercials, improv and stand-up comedy. During the pandemic, they started a comedic podcast about grumbling about mundane trivialities. Titled Grumble Goat, heres the link: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/grumble-goat-mat-labotka-veronique-hurley-aLRmhwXbgMB/James Rana, director, is also an actor and a playwright, who has worked in film and television and with theaters throughout the country, including ELTC, where he recently starred in Nothing Matters, a fully-produced Equity production that was rehearsed and filmed during the pandemic. In 2017, he performed in Off-Broadway's "The Government Inspector" starring Michael Urie. In the fall of 2017, he began rehearsals for Broadway's "The Bands Visit," and performed several times in the role of the Band's Leader, originally performed by Tony Shalhoub, and other roles. When this Tony Award winning show closed on Broadway in April 2018, he began performing in The National Tour, which has been on hiatus since mid-March 2020 due to the pandemic.

Authors

• B. Lavrenoff
• Maxim Gorky