Corey Burke, Madison Wambeke and Christopher Fannon star in The Liar.
Whitefish Theatre Company stages the bitingly witty farce, “The Liar,” Oct. 19-28 as the first mainstage theatre production of the 2017-2018 season.
David Ives, one of the leading humorists in contemporary American theatre, adapted “The Liar” from Pierre Cornielle’s 17th century French comedy. Ives is best known for hilarious adaptations and plays such as “All In The Timing” and “Venus in Fur.”
“The Liar” opens at the O’Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish with a sneak preview, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 19, and continues at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, Oct. 20-28 at 7:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 22.
“The Liar” is one of Ives’ “translaptations,” a combination of translation and adaptation that he spins out entirely in outrageously clever verse. At the center of the farce is Dorante, a charming young man who wins admirers everywhere he goes, as long as he doesn’t have to tell them the truth.
With each person he encounters, Dorante exaggerates and spins the truth further and further out of recognizable shape – not out of malice, mind you, but essentially because he gets carried away. The fun begins when Dorante meets Cliton, a manservant who is pathologically honest.
The two embark on an adventure of mistaken identities, breathtakingly intricate lies, duels, identical-twin lady’s maids, and multiple marriage proposals that all combine to create a hilarious urban romance that will leave you laughing long after the final curtain.
The New York Times calls “The Liar” an “effervescent delight … Mr. Ives’ lyric and comic invention never falters” while the Washington Examiner praised “The Liar” as “astonishingly fresh, funny, and totally appealing to modern audiences.”
“In the world that often seems to devalue standards of dress, proper speech and civil behavior, what a privilege it has been to work on ‘The Liar’ as an alternative reality of wit, style, and intelligent language,” says director David Ackroyd. “The characters dress and move with style, and what’s more, they speak poetry, hilarious poetry, rife with witty word play and sly double entendres that has all been wonderfully reimagined by David Ives’ from the original 17th century script.”
“The Liar” features Christopher Fannon, Corey Burke, Madison Wambeke, Tony Hernandez, Ashley Halle, Angie Green, Bob Fleischman, and Stuart Green. “It has been wonderful for the cast to immerse themselves in a society that valued a code of high fashion, social propriety, and poetic discourse,” says Ackroyd. “We are all thoroughly enjoying this non-stop linguistic masterpiece of a play.”
Tickets are $20 for adults, $18 for seniors, and $10 for students, with reserved seating. Tickets for the sneak preview Oct. 19 are $10 and available only at the door.
Tickets can be purchased at the Box Office, 1 Central Ave. in Whitefish, by calling 406-862-5371 or online at www.whitefishtheatreco.org.