FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Plan-B Theatre PRESENTS A (SORT OF) WORLD PREMIERE BY MELISSA LEILANI LARSON

April 11-28, 2024

THURDAYS @ 8pm
FRIDAYS @ 8pm
SATURDAYS @ 4pm (ASL Interpretation + Post-show Discussion April 13, Sensory Friendly April 20)
SUNDAYS @ 2pm

All artists are available for interview. Please submit your request here.

What if Lady Macduff finally had her say beyond her 19 lines in The Scottish Play?

Finlay Macbeth has done Lady Helen Macduff a terrible wrong. Now they are trapped, alone together, in a purgatorial waiting room.

Sometimes the only escape is forgiving the unforgivable.

This riff on Shakespeare’s MACBETH is a life-after-death journey through the strange, the empty, and everything in-between.

What do we mean by a (sort of) world premiere? Well, Creekside Theatre Festival in Cedar Hills commissioned and produced BITTER LEMON in 2019. That production involved a new cast each performance who’d never seen the script before, performing with scripts-in-hand, learning the show as the audience did, which was very exciting. Mel mentioned to us that she’s love to see a fully-rehearsed. fully-realized production and, well, here we are!

Written by Melissa Leilani Larson (PILOT PROGRAM, THE EDIBLE COMPLEX, "Erasers" and "Gluten" as part of (IN)DIVISIBLE, THE POST OFFICE, "Little Karl" as part of RADIO SLAM, and MESTIZA, or MIXED at Plan-B; PRIDE & PREJUDICE at Hale Center Theater-Orem; SWEETHEART, COME at PYGmalion). Read her blog post about creating BITTER LEMON!

Directed by Jerry Rapier (more than 40 Plan-B productions, including Mel's PILOT PROGRAM and MESTIZA, or MIXED).

Featuring Bobby Cody as Finlay Macbeth (Plan-B debut; The Chosen on CW) and Yolanda Stange as Helen Macduff (MARRY CHRISTMAS, ...OF COLOR, ODA MIGHT, LOCAL COLOR, AFTERSHOCK at Plan-B; also HAIRY & SHERRI at SLAC). Please note that Yolanda's surname is Stange, not Strange (it gets misspelled a lot).

PRODUCTION DETAILS

In the button gallery below, you'll find the links to purchase a Mini Subscription (that includes BALTHAZAR by Debora Threedy at a savings of 25%) single tickets ($25 general admission, $15 students, also available at 801.355.ARTS), the digital playbill, accessibility information, press, our free app, and the high school study guide for our A Week With A Play education program. 

CAST & CREATIVE

Playwright: Melissa Leilani Larson
Actors: Bobby Cody & Yolanda Stange
Director: Jerry Rapier
Costume Designer: Victoria Bird
Intimacy Director: Liz Whittaker
Lighting Designer: Emma Belnap
Scenic Designer: Janice Chan
Show Art: Aaron Asano Swenson
Sound Designer: Cheryl Ann Cluff
Stage Manager: Taylor Wallace
Scenic Builder & Electrician: David Knoell

“Our fears do make us traitors.”
– William Shakespeare’s MACBETH, Act IV, Scene ii

“I hope people will think about these iconic people as a little more ordinary -
regular people asking questions we all find ourselves asking.”
– Playwright Melissa Leilani Larson