Events

Desert Ensemble Theatre Presents “The Beebo Brinker Chronicles”

Judith Chapman directs adaptation of vintage lesbian pulp fiction novels

Judith Chapman
“The Young and the Restless” Set with Judith Chapman
CBS television City
Los Angeles
06/19/18
© Howard Wise/jpistudios.com
310-657-9661

 

 

 Desert Ensemble Theatre continues its new residency at the Palm Springs Cultural Center in December with a production of THE BEEBO BRINKER CHRONICLES by Moira Ryan and Linda S. Chapman.

 

Performances are December 10–12 and December 17–19: Fridays at 7pm, Saturdays at 2pm and 7pm, and Sundays at 7pm. Tickets are $35 and available at www.desertensembletheatre.org.

 

Set in pre-Stonewall Greenwich Village, the play follows the lives and loves of Laura, Beth and Beebo as they navigate uncharted territories of desire. Beth and Laura, secret lovers in college, went separate ways after graduation: Beth married and had children; Laura moved to New York. Both pine for each other, but before they can reunite, they find themselves entangled in the web of Beebo Brinker, a butch denizen of the bars with a soft spot for young lesbians fresh off the bus. The play celebrates the era when “the love that dares not speak its name” began breaking the old rules. The fast-paced dramedy is adapted from the pulp fiction novels I Am a Woman, Women in the Shadows and Journey to a Woman by Ann Bannon, published between 1957 and 1962.

Daytime drama star Judith Chapman joins Desert Ensemble Theatre for her first directing assignment with the company, now in its second decade. The award-winning cast includes Lizzie Schmelling, Alexana Thomas, Phylicia Mason, Tessa Gregory-Walker, Brent Anderson and Miguel Arballo.

“THE BEEBO BRINKER CHRONICLES aggressively goes after laughs, playing with the novels’ more dated and histrionic elements. But it doesn’t settle for caricature…complex emotions darkly edge the play’s absurdities, anchoring what could easily have been an exercise in camp.” —The New York Times. “…there’s gold in that dime-store pulp…far from being a simple sepia-toned snapshot of the past, this colorful portrait of gay life in the Village startles with the truths it flashes amid the one-liners and melodramatic confrontations.” —New York Magazine.

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Desert Ensemble Theatre presents: THE BEEBO BRINKER CHRONICLES

Dec. 10–12 and 17–19

Fridays, 7pm; Saturdays, 2pm and 7pm; Sundays, 2pm

Palm Springs Cultural Center, 2300 E Baristo Road, Palm Springs, CA 92262

Tickets: $35, www.desertensembletheatre.org

Phone: (760) 565-2476

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