By Maxton Young-Jones
The Edgewood Theatre Department will take part in Suicide Awareness month with its new production of Late Company, which opened Sept. 14 in The Stream, the local theatre on campus.
The play, written by Jordan Tanahill and directed by Edgewood College Prof. Jeanne Leep, tackles themes of depression, bullying, homophobia, and suicide.
Published in 2015, Late Company is the story of two families who attempt to establish a dialogue after one of the family’s sons kills himself, while the other family’s son is established to be the dead son’s primary bully.
While the dead son, Joel, never appears onstage, his mother Deborah (Cassie Carney) and his father Michael (Patrick Mahoney) do. KimberLee Emmerich, Chase Crull, and Alan Lau-Brown round out the cast as the other family.
“Even though it sounds like a heavy-handed play, it’s a great script,” said Leep.
Leep continued, “It’s a very tricky script too in that it deals with grief. People in their college years sometimes have been immersed in grief and some people haven’t had a major grief experience so it’s an opportunity to learn how to handle that.”
Emmerich, a sophomore and Theatre Talent Scholar, said she wanted to be to be a part of something that brings awareness. “It is a hard show,” she said. “Even in auditions. Even when crew came to watch, there were tears in the auditions. It sounds bad, but I want people to feel the emotion in this and to understand that this does happen.”
Late Company runs until Sept. 22 at 7:30 p.m. with an additional performance on the 22 at 2 p.m. in The Stream at Edgewood College.
Tickets are for sale either at the box office or through the Edgewood box office website.
Post your comments