Going to St. Ives
By Lee Blessing
Directed by Joe Herman
April 18,19,20,24,25,26,27,May 1,2,3

In Going to St. Ives audiences are treated to a compelling psychological thriller about two extraordinary women from two different cultures half a world apart whose lives intersect.  The play depicts the contest of wits and wills between British eye surgeon Cora Gage and her royal African patient May N'Kame, who both have political and personal agendas that go way beyond treating a patient ... or being one.

Dr. Gage would like N'Kame's dictator son to release physicians being held by his evil, murderous regime.  May has come to England to save her eyesight, but she also wants something much more drastic.  "As I was going to St. Ives" is an old nursery rhyme-riddle with a deceptively simple answer.  Or, one might say . . .  a few complicated solutions.  Watching these two women grapple with their moral dilemmas as they ride an emotional roller coaster promises to keep our audiences both mesmerized and ever guessing.

Lee Blessing (b. 1949), award-winning author of A Walk in the Woods (1988), has had a prolific career over the past three decades.  His works include War of the Roses (1984), Eleemosynary (1985), Cobb (1989), and Whores (2002), among many others.  Going to St. Ives premiered in 1997 in Seattle, WA and in Philadelphia in 2003 at Interact Theatre Company.  Our production features Donna Marie Earl and Pierlisa Chiodo-Steo, two actresses of great range and depth, both of whom have been seen before at The Stagecrafters; among others, Donna as Shawna DuChamps in Coyote on a Fence (2005) and Pierlisa as Regina Giddens in The Little Foxes (2006) and as Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2002).