Four years ago, the Centerstage Board commissioned Artistic Director Alan Bryce to write three new shows. The first of these, “For All That,” was nominated for a Gregory Award as “Most Outstanding New Play of 2015.” The second, “Death on the Supermarket Shelf,” about the Chicago Tylenol Murders of 1982, received critical acclaim. The third in the series, “Cardinal Sins,” opens on Saturday.
“It was not my original intention to write three historically-based shows, but that’s the way it turned out,” Bryce said. “I guess, at my age, personal angst yields to bigger ideas … and that’s what interests me now. While ‘Cardinal Sins’ is essentially a love story, it’s told in the context of the story behind the birth of Western principles of freedom and the origin of the concept of human rights.”
Bryce was vacationing in England when he and his family came across The Stephen Langton pub in the Surrey countryside. According to a press release, the pub was named for the Archbishop of Canterbury, who, in 1215, led rebellious barons against the tyrannical King John, and it was Langton who formulated the Magna Carta, the Western world’s foundation document that has been the inspiration for, and the cornerstone of, constitutional government, today considered the norm for civilized political life.
“Cardinal Sins” is based on that story, as well as some of the mythic content surrounding the woman who inspired Langton to create those revolutionary words, according to the press release.
Centerstage has put together a skilled creative team to mount this story. Director John Henry Davis has directed at The Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, The Dallas Theatre Center, The Kennedy Center in Washington DC and has directed opera at Lincoln Center in New York. A team of composers has created the score, led by four-time Grammy nominee John Forster, who was responsible for the music in “For All That.” Contributions have also come from Milton Reame-James, whose score for “Lords of London” was heard at the Cannes Film Festival. Other songs have come from LA-based Carl Johnson and Ron Barnett. Lyrics are by Chana Wise, a Richard Rodgers Award finalist for the best lyrics by an American written in 2015.
Appearing as Langton is Brian Pucheu, who is supported by a cast of 17, including Gregory Award nominee Caitlin Frances, Josh Williamson, Chris Shea, Martyn Krouse and Steve Grenley.
Tickets are available at www.centerstagetheatre.com and by calling 253-661-1444. Prices range from $15 to $29. “Cardinal Sins” opens Saturday and runs through June 4. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and at 2 p.m. Sundays at the Knutzen Family Theatre, 3200 SW Dash Point Road.
Centerstage is Federal Way’s resident theater company. It was founded in 1977 and for the past 14 years has produced shows at the Knutzen Family Theatre on the shores of Puget Sound.
