‘The Retreat From Moscow’ Coming To

Little Theatre As Town Players Season Opener

The Retreat From Moscow, written by William Nicholson, author of The Shadowlands, opens September 7 at The Little Theatre. It will be the first production of the 2012-13 season for The Town Players of Newtown.

First performed at the Chichester Festival Theater in October 1999, The Retreat From Moscow is the powerful story of the end of a three-decade marriage and the emotional fallout that changes the lives of everyone touched by it.

The play takes its name from Napoleon’s invasion, and subsequent retreat, of Moscow — a topic that is the current obsession of the emotionally repressed Edward (Rob Pawlikowski of Roxbury), along with the daily crossword puzzle. Edward tries to keep things on an even keel in his marriage however possible, while his wife Alice (Laurel Lettieri of Norwalk), who has spent years putting together an anthology of poems about love, does whatever she can to extract any kind of emotional response from him.

Their son Jamie (Ward Whipple of Stratford) is an understated melding of his parents while at the same time remaining his own person — and is in the unenviable position of seeing the situation from both his parents’ perspectives.

According to Director Ruth Anne Baumgartner of Fairfield, “Nicholson says the play began as his attempt to understand his parents’ divorce and its effects on him; but what he has written is a poignant picture of the human condition – of what Robert Browning calls [in a poem quoted in the play] ‘finite hearts that yearn.’ Because the play is true, it speaks to us all.”

In addition to Ms Baumgartner, the production crew includes producers Marge Rogers and Pam Meister Jones of Newtown, set designer Alexander Kulcsar of Fairfield, and lighting designer Rob Pawlikowski.

The Retreat From Moscow will run weekends, September 7-29. Curtain times are 8 pm Fridays and Saturdays, with 2 pm matinees on Sundays, September 16 and 23.

Tickets are $20; $15 for matinee performances, and $10 children 10 and under. (Please note that this production may not be suitable for children under 12.)

Reservations may be made by calling the box office at 203-270-9144 or by sending an email to reservations@newtownplayers.org. For further information, visit www.NewtownPlayers.org or email info@newtownplayers.org.

Town Players’ Little Theatre is a community theater, currently in its 77th season, located on 18 Orchard Hill Road in Newtown.