The Centre Theatre
and
and
Iron Age Theatre
Present
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| March-April 2007 Thursday - Saturday at 8PM Sundays at 2PM Click on the Calendar (Show Dates in Brown) to buy tickets on line for that performance. 
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Directed and Designed
by Randall Wise and John Doyle
with
Patrick Edward White
Kelly Vrooman
Adam Altman
Matthew J. McDonough
David Fiebert
Markus Zanders
Chuck Beishl
Kareem Carpenter
Kate McLenigan
Chris Graziano
David Yashin
James Santangelo as the Piano Player
at the Centre Theater
208 Dekalb Street Norristown
610-279-1013
Print the truth or the legend? In Fathers and Sons Thomas Babe
takes on how we create American heroes and what it does to the hero.
Wild Bill Hickock finds himself in 1870s Deadwood, a rollicking, raw
gold camp in the Black Hills.
The famed lawman and gunfighter is haunted by his violent past, finding
his legend more of a burden and blessing. A man of action ambushed by
reflection and regret at the end of his days, Hickock reunites with the
tough, lusty Calamity Jane, Colorado Charlie and the rest of the
colorful denizens of Deadwood while Jack McCall and his gang of
cutthroats angle for a deadly showdown. A rare western written for the
stage, Fathers and Sons echoes classic western novels and movies, yet
invigorates the legend with a clear modern view in the style of
Deadwood. An elegiac western that is funny and rambunctious, it finds
the comic truth in the frontier myth by the simple, elegant means of
looking it straight in the eye.
Purchase Tickets for this production@ TicketLeap.com
Meet the Cast of Fathers and Sons
Randall Wise and John Doyle, the Iron Age director-designer team, create Carl Mann's saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, in August 1876 on the spacious Centre Theater stage, complete with tinny piano, spittoons, pot-belly stove and trophy animal heads overlooking the action. Genuine cigar smoke provides a convincing haze for their subtle lighting.
Fathers and Sons is punctuated with music — not only James Santangelo's bluesy underscoring, but brief, surprisingly sincere songs that reveal the tortured personalities beneath.
The performances are similarly layered: White's ornery Hickok is a believably tragic, tortured figure, and Markus Zanders' feisty Colorado Charlie, Chuck Beishl's bitter California Joe, and David Fiebert's scheming Pacific Pete are also richly realized. Vrooman's pragmatic Calamity Jane proves well-adjusted to her role as a largely fictitious icon. Kareem Carpenter shines as a fame-hungry assassin, and David Yashin humorously tries to mediate the larger-than-life climactic struggle.
Babe originally wrote Fathers and Sons as "an evocation of the murders at Kent State and Jackson in May 1970," which one wouldn't guess without program notes. But its titanic struggles between generations, and its exposure of the differences between romanticized violence and grim reality, fit the 1870s, the 1970s — and today — all too well.
Mark Cofta
Philadelphia City Paper
Links About the Production
Cowboy Postcard Series
American Legend Charlie Utter
Deadwood Revealed
Digital Deadwood - Play and Online Deadwood Adventure
A Wild Bill Biography
Wild Bill at the Deadwood Adam's Museum
Thomas Babe Biographical Info
The Dime Novel
What is a Dime Novel?
Western Dime Novels
Kent State Controversy
Kent State Shootings
Dead Man's Hand Screensaver
Aces and Eights
The Number 10 Saloon
Gravesite for Jack McCall
The Trial of Jack McCall
Google Books - Calamaity Jane - Requires a log in
Male Bonding Western Style
Wikipedia on Candy Apples
Barrymore Award for
Best Ensemble in a Play for Terra Nova