UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State Centre Stage will produce Jen Silverman's "Bonnets: How Ladies of Good Breeding are Induced to Murder," Nov. 14-Dec. 2 at the Pavilion Theatre on the University Park campus. The show is directed by Jenny Lamb, assistant teaching professor of movement.
According to the Centre Stage website, "Bonnets" is a rock ‘n roll story of unrequited love — one about lust, and another about jealousy — that fall into each other across space and time, according to Lamb, ending in a total blood bath, narrated by God. Weaving between the 17th and 19th centuries, this absurdist, comic and highly physical exploration of love and violence shows how easily "ladies of good breeding are induced to murder."
Lamb wrote, "These stories are hundreds of years old, and yet we are still telling the same ones today. History is told by the winners. And women have consistently been the losers. I deeply appreciate Jen Silverman authoring a piece of work that turns that narrative on its head and puts the power in the hands of women, using the great tool of comedy to get the message across. It is a warning. A foreshadowing. A prophesy. A premonition. That under stifling repression, violence breaks through."
"Bonnets" was commissioned by the Big Ten Theatre Consortium as part of a series of new plays by and about women for production by professional and academic theaters around the country.
Evening performances at 7:30 p.m. are $23; preview performance at 7:30 p.m. is $20; and tickets for students are $15. For additional show information, visit the Penn State Centre Stage website. Non-Penn State arts and architecture students can see it for free by visiting this link.