Maria Aitken Brings Family Fun to THE COCKTAIL HOUR

Our relationship with director Maria Aitken goes back to 2007 with her production of Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, which moved on to Broadway and ran for nearly 800 performances. Fortunately she appears to reciprocate our love, and we've since brought her back to the Huntington for critically acclaimed productions of Educating Rita (2011), Private Lives and Betrayal (2012). At the first rehearsal for Private Lives, Maria even quipped that she "might as well toss a mattress in the corner of the rehearsal room and stay here for a while*." We're ecstatic to welcome her back to our stage once again to present A.R. Gurney's The Cocktail Hour this season.

Outside of work as a director, Maria is an accomplished comedienne, having appeared in more Noël Coward plays than any other actress, and we're excited to have her bring that unique sensibility to The Cocktail Hour. The play tells the story of a playwright named John, who interrupts his parents' daily cocktail hour ritual to announce that he has written a pseudo-autobiographical about the family. Naturally, this news is received with mixed reactions -- and lots of alcohol. The play is a thinly-veiled allegory for playwright A.R. Gurney's actual relationship with his family, to the point that he promised them that as long as they were still alive, he would never, ever let the play be produced anywhere near the Buffalo near (where they resided). And if that uncomfortably-close-to-home-meta-ness weren't enough, the character of John mentions at one point having had a play produced at...the Boston University Theatre.

It might sound a little heavy -- and there is certainly some drama! -- but we actually like to think of The Cocktail Hour as an American comedy of manners. It has much more in common with Noël Coward than Arthur Miller, but whereas Coward's characters and worlds are distinctly British, Gurney's play takes place right here in the Northeast. Plus, John's upper-class family happens to be avid theatregoers, so we think our audience will enjoy seeing a version of their own lives portrayed on stage. Allegorically, of course. Unless the lampooning hits too close to home, in which case it was entirely coincidental. We swear.

Here's Artistic Director Peter DuBois discussing the show, and gushing even more over the wonderful Maria Aitken:

The Cocktail Hour plays Nov. 15 - Dec. 15, 2013 at the Avenue of the Arts / BU Theatre.

*In reference to the fact that rehearsals for Betrayal would be starting just over six months later. Also, just to be clear, we do in fact provide our visiting artists with more than just a mattress in the corner of the rehearsal room. Unless that's something they specifically request, of course.

2013 IRNE Award Nominations

Johanna Day in Good People. Photo: T. Charles Erickson

From the IRNE Awards website:

The Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Awards were founded by Beverly Creasey of the Journal Newspapers and Larry Stark of the TheaterMirror in 1997. The IRNE Awards recognize the extraordinary wealth of talent in the Boston theatre community.

The IRNEs are one of the big Boston theatre awards every year, mostly because of the diversity involved: the range of artists that get nominated runs the entire gamut of the Boston theatre community, and everyone comes together for a celebration when the awards are announced, usually around late April at the Cyclorama at the BCA (this year's award night information is still TBA). It's a veritable Who's-Who of the Boston theatre community, celebrating every accomplishment from the smallest fringe and community theatre groups all the way up to touring productions at Broadway in Boston.

The IRNE Awards recognize all productions within the calendar year (so the entirety of 2012, for example, as opposed to one of our season, which typically run from September - June), and this year, the Huntington has received a whopping 35 nominations, which is more than any other company in Boston!

What Audiences Are Saying about PRIVATE LIVES

Have you seen Private Lives? Please share your comments with us.

• What do you think Coward is saying about relationships? Do his views resonate today, more than 80 years after the play was written?

• Have you seen Private Lives before? How did it compare to previous productions you've seen? If you haven't, what struck you about this classic comedy?

• Did you attend a post-show conversation? What comments surprised you or made you think differently about the play? Would you attend a post-show conversation again? What were you thinking about on the way home from the theatre?

Make a comment

The Huntington Theatre Company's production of Private Lives plays through June 24, 2012 at the Avenue of the Arts / BU Theatre. Get tickets and information or call our Box Office at 617 266-0800.