Based on a true story, brothel becomes funeral home in world premiere of dark comedy from spit&vigor.
July 8 - 25 at The Players Theater
spit&vigor presents the World Premiere of THE WAKE OF DORCAS KELLY, a dark comedy written and directed by Sara Fellini (2015 NYIT Award nominee, 2014 Planet Award winner, 2018 Planet Award Outstanding Direction nominee). Performances begin July 8 at Off-Broadway’s The Players Theater.
Based on a true story, THE WAKE OF DORCAS KELLY brings the audience front and center as an intimate circle of mourners gather within The Maiden Tower brothel to hold a wake for beloved former madam Dorcas Kelly, while a riot rages outside on the streets of Dublin, 1762. As the night roars on, Dorcas’ many well-kept secrets are revealed, and the mourner’s adoration for their departed benefactress turn into questions about their own love, lust, fear, and anger.
By the critically-acclaimed and award-winning company members that produced In Vestments (“wrenching and visually eloquent” - The New York Times) and The Brutes (nominated for 7 Planet Connections Awards and an NYIT Award in 2018, “irresistably dramatic” - The New York Times), THE WAKE OF DORCAS KELLY is the story of an executed brothel madam and the friends, family, and secrets she left behind. Sex, lies, murder, and the untold secrets of the dead are unearthed and exposed in this wild and gripping dark comedy.
THE WAKE OF DORCAS KELLY stars Adam Belvo (2015 Planet Connections Outstanding Lead Actor winner, 2019 NYIT Outstanding Lead Actor nominee), Kyra Jackson, Duoer Jia, Irina Kaplan (Anatomy Theatre PROTOTYPE Festival, Human Affairs), Phoebe Mar Halkowich, Eamon Murphy (Oh What a Lovely War on Terror at Edinburgh Fringe), Peter Oliver (Marriage Story, Law & Order SVU), Nicholas Thomas (Blunderbuss Productions) with a production team that includes Adam Belvo (set), Chelsie McPhilimy (lighting), Xandra Leigh Parker (costume assistant), Nick Thomas (set) and Hadley Todoran (stage manager).
Sara Fellini is an award-winning playwright, director, actress, and skilled artisan. Her play Hazard a Little Death was nominated for six awards at the 2014 Planet Connections Theater Festivity including Best Production of a New Play and Best Lead Actress (Sara Fellini), and won Best New Script. She performed as Nannerl in Sylvia Milo’s monodrama The Other Mozart at The Players Theatre and toured the production through the US (winning Cat5 magazine’s Best Theater Production of 2015, “the voice of a crystal bell, Fellini is captivating” –NOLA Defender), and created the role of Maeve Shourd in a site-specific production of In Vestments, a play of her own writing and winner of two NYIT awards, nominated for Outstanding New Full-Length Script, earning her theater company the prestigious Donn Russell grant, and acclaimed by The New York Times as "wrenching and visually eloquent". She has appeared as the titular character in another play of her own writing, The Execution of Mrs. Cotton (called "darkly humorous" and "deliciously ghoulish" by The New York Times) at IRT Theater, she played Mary Shelley in Mary’s Little Monster by Thomas Kee at the Mudlark Public Theater in New Orleans, Davenport Theatre and The Players Theatre. She played Artemisia Gentileschi in her play NEC SPE / NEC METU at The Tank’s July 2017 DarkFest and at Theater Row as part of the United Solo Festival, and Asia Booth Clarke in The Brutes ("irresistibly dramatic, legitimately upsetting" - The New York Times) by Casey Wimpee as part of the Planet Connections Festivity, nominated for 8 awards including Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Costume Design (both Sara Fellini). She is the Artistic Director of spit&vigor theater company and designs costumes and props for various theater companies in and around New York.
THE WAKE OF DORCAS KELLY runs July 8 – 25. Performances are Thursday - Saturday at 8PM and Sunday at 3PM. The Players Theatre is located at 115 MacDougal Street, New York NY 10012 (accessible from the A/C/E trains at West 4th Street). Tickets are $42. For advance reservations, please visit https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/1045785. For more information please visit www.spitnvigor.com/the-wake-of-dorcas-kelly.