As Primary Stages enjoys its extended run of Conor McPherson's This Lime Tree Bower (through Aug. 15), the company has already announced three of its four shows for the upcoming season, its fifteenth. Among them are a world premiere by the author of Clean, a solo show about the FBI, and a Berkshire Festival hit comedy.
Here's the line-up:
• Oct. 6-Nov. 7: Barefoot Boy With Shoes On by Edwin Sanchez, directed by Primary Stages artistic director Casey Childs.
Sanchez penned the Atlantic Theater Company's Trafficking in Broken Hearts and Clean. Like the other works, Barefoot also tackling urban blight, this time through the eyes of a father who wants to give his son a better life.
• Dec. 1, 1999-Jan. 2, 2000: Elsa Edgar by Bob Kingdom, directed by Casey Childs. In this solo of two monologues about the way the media handles rumor and private information, author-actor Kingdom looks at gossip columnist Elsa Maxwell and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. Kingdom penned the solo works Dylan Thomas: Return Journey and The Truman Capote Talk Show, which played in repertory at NYC's Perry Street Theatre in 1994.
• March 8-April 9, 2000: An Empty Plate in the Cafe du Grand Boeuf by Michael Hollinger, directed by John Rando. Rando, a Primary Stages veteran, helmed David Ives' Mere Mortals there. He also staged Ives' Lives of the Saints in Philadelphia and the Encores! staged reading of Do Re Mi. He's currently directing Merton of the Movies at CA's Geffen Playhouse.
•May 3-June 4, 2000: TBA. *
As for This Lime Tree Bower, the current cast features Jamie Bennett (who replaced T.R. Knight, June 27), Thomas Lyons and Drew McVety (Titanic, Corpus Christi), under the direction of Harris Yulin. The latter is best known as an actor, having most recently appeared on Broadway in The Diary of Anne Frank.
A tale of the drunken misadventure of three men who become entangled with local thugs and the police, This Lime Tree Bower is currently being adapted into the film, "Salt Water," the first feature directed by McPherson. Lime Tree Bower was first produced at the Crypt Theatre, transferred to the Bush Theatre in London and won the Meyer Whitworth and George Devine Awards for Best New Play. McPherson's current Broadway offering, The Weir, won an Evening Standard Award, Critic's Circle Award and two Oliviers including Best Play. Other plays include St. Nicholas, which Primary Stages hosted last season, Rum & Vodka and The Good Thief.
Yulin has directed Jitta's Atonement with Dianne Wiest and Calista Flockhart, the tour of Don Juan in Hell with Ed Asner and The Front Page with Brian Dennehy, among others.
Designing Lime Tree are Walt Spangler (sets), Debra Stein (costumes) and Deborah Constantine (lighting). Marienne Chapman is the production stage manager.
For Primary Stages tickets ($30-$35; Subscriptions $130 and up), call the box office at (212) 333-4052. Primary Stages is located at 354 West 45th Street.
-- By David Lefkowitz
