Lantern Theater Company announce its upcoming 2021/22 season

-Courtesy of Lantern Theater Company

Lantern Theater Company is thrilled to announce its upcoming 2021/22 season, a return to live performance that will include an ambitious and eclectic mix of classic and contemporary work for the stage. The four plays that comprise the company’s mainstage season include the Philadelphia premiere of two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage’s satirical Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine; the Philadelphia professional premiere of Robert Bolt’s award-winning classic A Man for All Seasons; Tom Stoppard’s Tony Award-winning comic masterpiece Travesties; and a fourth play to be announced soon. The Lantern will also stage its original adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, a new Philadelphia holiday tradition co-created by theater artists Anthony Lawton, Christopher Colucci, and Thom Weaver. 

“When we find ourselves living in a world very different from our lives ‘before’ certain moments, there are two possible consequences: the tragic and the absurd,” said Lantern Artistic Director Charles McMahon. “For our upcoming 2021/22 mainstage season, we will bring you four great stories of human folly and conscience from four brilliant storytellers, past and present. The voices of Lynn Nottage and Tom Stoppard will delight us with their comic masterpieces, and we will produce for the first time the work of Robert Bolt on the tragedy of Thomas More. We are proud to bring the works of these great artists to the stage in a season that will be both timeless and timely.” 

Season subscriptions and flex packages start at $104 and are available online at www.lanterntheater.org or by calling the Lantern Box Office at (215) 829-0395. Single tickets for A Christmas Carol are on sale now for $22 – $30; single tickets for Travesties, A Man for All Seasons, and Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine go on sale October 15, 2021. 

Lantern Theater Company’s 2021/22 Mainstage Season 

FABULATION, OR THE RE-EDUCATION OF UNDINE
Philadelphia Premiere 
By Lynn Nottage 
Directed by Amina Robinson  
January 20 – February 20, 2022
 Undine has it all – success, love, and a fabulous wardrobe. When her life begins to unravel in one hilarious reversal after another, she is forced to return to a life she had long left behind. In this satirical comedy, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage asks Undine – and all of us – whether you can really ever go home again. 

A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS 
Philadelphia Premiere 
By Robert Bolt 
Directed by Peter DeLaurier  
March 10 – April 10, 2022
When Henry VIII puts aside Queen Catherine, he fears opposition from Sir Thomas More, his own Lord Chancellor, even more than from the Pope. A man of principle and politics, More tries to thread a vanishingly small needle to uphold his principles and to keep his head. Robert Bolt’s searing drama forces us to confront what we too might bear – or not – to keep clear our conscience. 

TRAVESTIES 
By Tom Stoppard 
Directed by Charles McMahon 
May 19 – June 19, 2022
Zürich, 1917. In Tom Stoppard’s Tony Award-winning comic masterpiece, obscure British diplomat Henry Carr and Dadaist Tristan Tzara are in love with Cecily and Gwendolyn, who are both in love with someone named Jack. Carr stages a production of The Importance of Being Earnest with James Joyce, and the action gets heated when Vladimir Lenin bursts onto the scene. Soon everyone in neutral Switzerland is at war over the question, “What does it mean to be an artist and a revolutionary?” 

PLUS: A fourth play to be announced soon. 

2021/22 Special Holiday Production 

CHARLES DICKENS’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL 
An Original Adaptation by Anthony Lawton 
In Collaboration with Christopher Colucci and Thom Weaver 
December 3 – 30, 2021
In this wonderfully clear and direct telling of Charles Dickens’ novella, acclaimed actor and playwright Anthony Lawton brings the story boldly to life as only live theater can. Come rediscover Dickens’ timeless story of a miser’s miraculous redemption from a life of bitterness, greed, and isolation. Back by popular demand, this heartwarming adaptation captured the hearts of theater critics and audiences alike, inspiring a new Philadelphia holiday tradition. Best enjoyed by ages 9-99. 

About Lantern Theater Company 
Founded in 1994 and now in its 28th season, Lantern Theater Company’s mission is to produce plays that investigate and illuminate what is essential in the human spirit and the spirit of the times. The Lantern serves the Philadelphia region with artistic and educational programming, notably partnering with middle schools and high schools in the Philadelphia School District to provide in-classroom residencies and live performances in support of curricular learning. 

The Lantern has been one of the most active theater companies in the country throughout the Covid-19 health crisis, retaining its staff and creating new opportunities for Philadelphia theater artists to earn income and practice their craft while theaters remain closed. Artistic programming during the pandemic has included live readings of Shakespeare plays in spring 2020 as part of Lantern Anywhere; filmed versions of fully realized theatrical productions of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in December 2020 and Molly Sweeney by Brian Friel in early 2021; and this spring’s Plays from the Lantern Archives series, which included professionally filmed and edited versions of the 2017 world premiere production of The Craftsman by Bruce Graham, and three recent Shakespeare productions: Measure for Measure (2019), The Tempest (2018), and Coriolanus (2017). In addition to its upcoming 2021/22 season, the Lantern previously announced a fall digital season to include two newly filmed productions: the world premiere of Me and the Devil by Steve H. Broadnax III and Charles Dumas about the great American blues musician Robert Johnson, and the American premiere of The Plague by Neil Bartlett, adapted from La Peste by Albert Camus. 

More information about the Lantern is available online at www.lanterntheater.org.