The Gloucester Stage Company will perform the New England premiere of Reparations, a show by award-winning playwright James Sheldon and directed by critically acclaimed writer and award-winning actress Myriam Cyr. Coming to Gloucester Stage from its world premiere at the Billie Holiday Theater in New York, Reparations won Best Play, 2020 Audelco Awards, an organization that acknowledges and honors Black Theatre and its artists in New York City.
With performances at Windhover Center for Performing Arts, Reparations opens on Friday, September 3, and runs through September 19. “Reparations is a thoughtful and complex drama that we are excited to share with our audience,” says Robert Walsh, artistic director of the Gloucester Stage Company.
Reparations tells the story of a recently widowed white book editor who invites a younger black writer to her apartment, only to find that a night of tenderness and passion turns into a complex and unforeseen morning-after when he threatens to reveal a dark secret. As family friends join them for an ill-timed Upper East Side lunch, all four are soon embroiled in whether the young writer is due reparation. Personal revelations lead to laughs, tears, and coming to terms with racial injustice and personal betrayal in this poignant play.
“I am thrilled that my play, Reparations, will be making its New England debut this September at Gloucester Stage Company, directed by the talented Myriam Cyr,” shared playwright James Sheldon. “With all my writing, I want to weigh in and reflect on the world around me as best I can in ways that can help audiences rethink some of the common assumptions we all seem to have about big issues. In Reparations, four characters from very different walks of life—different races, nationalities, ages, professions—come together and are forced to crack open the dark secrets of their pasts, which they’ve all been sitting on for a long time. The play attempts to rephrase the familiar debate on ‘reparations’— reparations for the past injustices of slavery, or genocide or apartheid—as a story of four people confronting the injustices of their own pasts.”
The multi-talented, critically acclaimed actress, writer, and producer Myriam Cyr will be making her directorial debut at Gloucester Stage, leading an all-star cast from film, stage, and television in the regional premiere of Sheldon’s newest play. Reparations stars the accomplished Jason Bowen (Reg Ambrose), Angela Pierce (Ginny Pleasance), Malcolm Ingram (Alistair Jacobs), and Lisa Tharps (Millie Jacobs), who are all also making their Gloucester Stage Company debut.
“We are honored to bring James Sheldon’s newest play to Boston,” said Gloucester Stage’s managing director Christopher Griffith. “This exceptional cast is going to spark a conversation onstage that will follow audiences home.”
Reparations will run from September 3 through September 19. Performances are outdoors Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 3:30 p.m. at Windhover Performing Arts Center, 257R Granite St., Rockport. Tickets are now on sale and available at gloucesterstage.com.