Minimal: a few hand props, one trunk, two tables, and four chairs.
NOTES
Adult content
This exhilarating adaptation of the classic Charles Dickens novel tells an epic story of vengeance and sacrifice poetically described in the famous first lines as "the best of times and the worst of times." When the French emigrant Charles Darnay returns to his native Paris to help a friend, his aristocratic past is cause for the new regime to imprison him in the infamous Bastille, where he is sentenced to death by guillotine. With time running out, Darnay's friends and family desperately try to free him before the iron falls.
"Concise but powerful adaptation... It cuts through the narrative complexities of this tale of the French Revolution and foregrounds its deeper truths."
Niki Prugh, Nigel Patterson, Elizabeth Rich and Derrick Nelson in the World Premiere of A Tale of Two Cities, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago (2004). Photo: Michael Brosilow.
