"Underneath the Lintel"

December 17th, 2009 - December 18th, 2009

Time: 7:30 PM
Cost: $10/Adults; $5/Youth
Location: Mid-Ohio Valley Players Theatre, Marietta, OH

    A Charleston Stage Company production of Underneath the Lintel, a one-man play written by Glen Berger and directed by Geoff Coward, will be presented on Thursday and Friday, December 17 and 18, at 7:30 p.m. at the MOVP theatre, 229 Putnam Street, Marietta, Ohio. The play will be co-produced by the Hippodrome/Colony Historical Theatre Association (HCHTA) and the Mid-Ohio Valley Players (MOVP) and will be sponsored in part by Artsbridge.
    A book that is 113 years overdue is returned to the overnight slot of a Dutch library. The reclusive librarian (played by Joe Miller) who finds the book begins a pilgrimage to discover the offender in order to send him “the fine of a lifetime.” Here begins Berger’s 70-minute, puzzling mystery of a play, Underneath the Lintel.
    Under the guise of “proving one life and justifying another,” the librarian, who remains nameless, proceeds to present evidence in the form of pictures and artifacts to the audience, demonstrating whom he thinks the culprit is. Eventually, the librarian’s detective work convinces him that he is following the trail of the mythical “wandering Jew,” a cobbler condemned (for mocking Christ while standing beneath the lintel of his shop) to continue “walking” and never resting until the second coming of Jesus Christ. As the mystery unfolds, the librarian finds himself on a journey that unlocks ancient secrets and moves him to new revelations. If the wanderer exists, so does the God who assigned his fate! Glen Berger’s brilliant and perplexing play was written in the aftermath of 9/11 and the play can be seen as a troubled man’s pilgrimage to find significance in both this own lonely existence and in the cosmos itself.
    Berger’s fluid script provides genuinely compelling storytelling, sometimes entertaining us much like a “shaggy-dog story” and at other times drawing us into the intriguing mystery in order to examine much larger themes.
    Eventually, through this journey of self-discovery, the librarian sees that the wandering Jew will never stop seeking a way around God’s edict. In fact, he will do better than “walk” — he will dance!
    The clean, understated staging of this production draws the audience into the librarian’s life with humor and urgency. The subtle pacing of the production allows the audience to embrace the librarian’s cause and become totally submerged in his search
    The winner of the 2009 West Virginia Theatre Conference Community Theatre Festival, the play comes to Marietta after completing a three-day run by the Charleston Stage Company in Charleston, WV.

Admission: $10/Adults; $5/Youth
Tickets can be purchased online at midohiovalleyplayers.org, the Colony Theatre office (740-373-0894), Marty’s Print Shop, Peoples News locations and Artsbridge in Parkersburg