The Times Readers Have Their Say

The Times critic had his say, now it's the readers' turn!

January 18th, 201211:28 am
Rating: 5 stars

1. ditto

I too was hesitant to attend a play so far out of the way for me. I was exhausted that evening, but completely forgot how tired I was about 10 minutes into the play. As a woman, I saw the life difficulties that led the temptress to her decisions...maybe she went further than the 10 commandments would permi, but hey, don't try to keep a good woman (some would quibble) down. Nonetheless, the play was filled with tension and enough surprises that it kept me fully involved and the 2 hours and change went quickly.

— Riley, NYC

---

January 19th, 20121:10 pm
Rating: 5 stars

2. Pleasantly Surprised

I saw the show because I had read the play in a theatre history class and was intrigued that someone was producing the show. The show was very good and had aged very well. The pacing was great, the language clear, and the themes felt very modern. There was not a weak actor in the company and they tackled difficult language and made it accessible. The staging and direction was clear without any gimmicks and the production values were high. The Storm Theatre and The Blackfriars Theatre company have done a great job in producing this show. Everything was very professional and first rate. It is nice to see independent theatre that is different and great.

— John M, New York, NY

---

January 22nd, 20121:24 pm
Rating: 3 stars

3. dress warmly

The theater in the church's basement was very cold -- there seemed to be very little or no heat.

Acting was good.

— marriane, easton, pa

---

January 23rd, 201210:28 am
Rating: 5 stars

4. Echoing the accolades

It really was a joyous event to discover such excellent stage actors and an 18th century play that truly has great relevance to our times. Millwood's diatribe about hypocrisy was stunning.

— parknyc, NYC

Thanks to everyone for their feedback.

Have you already seen The London Merchant? Write the Times and let them know what you think!

Sold Out!

As of twenty minutes ago, we sold the last available ticket for The London Merchant.

We produce in a very intimate venue. Our contract with the actors' union limits us to a maximum seating capacity of 99, but based on the configuration of our performance space (dictated by the design of each individual production) capacity is sometimes much less.

The New York Times review has caused a great boom in ticket sales for The London Merchant, and led us to add additional performances to the end of the run. Those performances have now sold out, as have our original slate.

Congratulations to our cast and crew!

Held Over!

Today, we are pleased to announce that we are extending the sold-out run of The London Merchant (or The History of George Barnwell). After our rave review in the Times, we have added additional performances.

Tickets for these additional performances are available now through SmartTix - don't miss your opportunity to see this groundbreaking play in its North American premiere!

The Times Review is in!

The New York Times review is in, and it's a rave!

Jessica Myhr as the prostitute who has Patrick Woodall in her power in this tragedy by George Lillo at the Theater of the Church of Notre Dame.
(photo © Michael Abrams)

THEATER REVIEW | 'THE LONDON MERCHANT'
A 1731 Morality Tale That Aged Well, Unlike Its Characters
By KEN JAWOROWSKI
Published: January 17, 2012

The long title of the play: “The London Merchant, or the History of George Barnwell.” The short review: excellent.

That’s a simple way to sum up this co-production by the Storm Theater and the Blackfriars Repertory Theater. But there’s no one word to convey the pleasure of discovering an exciting work when you’d been dreading a musty old relic.

“The London Merchant,” written by George Lillo and first performed in 1731, was a hit in the 18th century and has mostly vanished since. The tragedy centers on the title character, a young apprentice who falls under the spell of the scheming prostitute Millwood. She soon manipulates Barnwell into embezzling his employer’s money, then leads him to contemplate graver crimes.

Considered groundbreaking because of a plot that focused on working-class characters, this morality tale remains deliciously tense and dark; Lillo surely read his Shakespeare, for there are faint echoes of “Macbeth” and “Hamlet.” There’s also some fine poetry, and just a bit of stuffiness that betrays the script’s age, as does an occasional, and forgivable, didacticism.

As Barnwell, Patrick Woodall has an exceptional presence, particularly in soliloquy. Jessica Myhr, as Millwood, is captivating and coldly wicked. As Millwood’s servants, Michelle Kafel and Spencer Aste supply the welcome humor (with the clever Mr. Aste doubling as Barnwell’s uncle), while Joe Danbusky, Harlan Work and Megan Stern shine in supporting roles. All of the cast, directed on a clean, spare thrust stage by Peter Dobbins, exploit the underlying emotions to full effect, and Michael Abrams’s lighting heightens the foreboding mood.

There are so many surprises in the 2 hours and 10 minutes of “The London Merchant” that you may have to remind yourself that yes, you are in a basement that houses the Theater of the Church of Notre Dame, a space far off the radar of most audiences. That’s not a snobbish statement, but rather an acknowledgment that, in New York, out-of-the-way places can produce some first-rate theater.

“The London Merchant” continues through Jan. 28 at the Theater of the Church of Notre Dame, 405 West 114th Street, Morningside Heights; (212) 868-4444, stormtheatre.com.

Congratulations to everyone in this amazing cast and crew. You've earned this.

The First Reviews!

The first reviews of The London Merchant are in!

Backstage has this to say:

It has been left to the enterprising Storm Theatre, in collaboration with the Blackfriars Repertory Theatre, to at last introduce the playwright George Lillo and his 1731 drama THE LONDON MERCHANT to New York. The play has been called "the first bourgeois tragedy," for instead of presenting the usual upper strata of English society, it focused on the merchant class, with characters that were immediately recognizable to a middle-class theatergoing audience. For Lillo, with his accent on Christian morality, this emerging group of capitalists was just as worthy of a fall from grace as their supposed betters. The play gained immediate popularity and became one of the most frequently performed plays of the 18th century, with its newfound focal point having considerable influence on later British and Continental playwriting.

So why has it lain hidden all these years? The story is a straightforward one, being a moral treatise on the road to ruin. As such there is little surprise and not a great deal of dramatic tension. Millwood (Jessica Myhr), "a lady of pleasure," has vowed to have her revenge on men. "Women are your universal prey," she observes. She sets her sights on an upright, innocent apprentice, George Barnwell (Patrick Woodall), who lives in the London house of his merchant master, Thorowgood (Joe Danbusky). Also in this house is a second apprentice, Trueman (Harlan Work), who is George's stalwart friend, and Thorowgood's daughter, Maria (Megan Stern), who is in love with George. We witness the respected George drawn into the web of the lovely, unscrupulous Millwood, who is aided in her evil scheme by her two servants, Lucy (Michelle Kafel) and Blunt (Spencer Aste). Soon poor George is awash in "this world of woe."

There is pleasure here in the formality of Lillo's language as he creates a glowing scene of goodness that is surprisingly convincing. But, as ever, it is the serpent in the garden who has the best lines. Lillo's delineation of Millwood's character is the most compelling aspect of the play. He makes her both captivating and complex; at her most devious she dissembles with a cunning grace. Though it was clearly never Lillo's intention, she has the makings of a feminist heroine.

Under the astute direction of Peter Dobbins, the well-spoken production has a pleasing bare-boards simplicity that captures the period. Myhr creates a young, attractive Millwood who is deliciously cool in all circumstances, perhaps too cool in her final damnation of men. Innocence is difficult to convey, but Woodall gives George a shining goodness that speaks well for the actor's future. There's a capable supporting cast, especially Danbusky and Work, while Maria Kousoulos' costumes, Michael Abrams' lighting, and David Thomas' sound design greatly assist this cautionary tale. Any student of dramatic history should hurry to make the acquaintance of Millwood and George and finally give George Lillo a welcome to New York.

TheatreMania contributes this:

Patrick Woodall and Harlan Work in The London Merchant.
(photo © Michael Abrams)

Talk about navigating your slippery slopes — that's what's facing young mercantile apprentice George Barnwell in George Lillo's 1731 play THE LONDON MERCHANT, being co-presented by the Storm Theatre and Blackfriars Repertory Theatre at the Church of Notre Dame under Peter Dobbins' straightforward direction.

Barnwell (Patrick Woodall) spends but one night succumbing to the charms of the manipulative and mercenary courtesan Sarah Millwood (Jessica Myhr), and he's immediately ready to commit embezzlement — and worse — for another taste of paradise.

Subtlety was not a strong suit for Lillo, whose characters — including Barnwell's master Thorowgood (played with impressive gravitas by Joe Danbusky) and George's fellow apprentice, Truman (Harlan Work) — tend to have assigned positions along the virtue/depravity spectrum.

But the work does have a somewhat surprisingly modern sensibility in its creation of Millwood. In a stirring mid-play speech, she lays the blame for her misdeeds on the parade of men who abused her: "Another and another spoiler came … all were alike wicked to the utmost of their power. In pride, contention, avarice, cruelty and revenge, the reverend priesthood were my unerring guides."

The play could have ended there, but unfortunately Lillo had a didactic mission to fulfill. We follow the lovers right to the brink of the gallows, where the unrepentant Millwood pants in terror as a duly shriven Barnwell beams, confident of a blissful reception on the other side. Fortunately, the acting has much merit, especially the work of Woodall and Myrh. If they can handle material this abstruse and antiquated this adeptly, just imagine what might happen once they sink their teeth into meatier matter.

The London Merchant is on a strictly limited engagement, and runs through January 28th. Tickets are available now through SmartTix - don't miss your opportunity to see this groundbreaking play in its North American premiere!

Why "The Storm"?

"Now is a time to storm; why art thou still?"

- Titus Andronicus, III, i, l.264

Storms are variously identified with disturbances of the natural atmosphere as well as the landscape of the soul. They can encompass explosions of both an electrical or a passionate nature and have been represented as assaults, sometimes violent, upon fortified citadels or secret, internal retreats.

A group of like-minded individuals shared a desire to establish a theatre company that would create a meaningful impact on the lives of the people who came to its productions. The "Storm" struck them as an ideal image of what their efforts might accomplish. A storm grows from elemental forces and, inevitably, explodes one reality in to another; it is a journey through catharsis to regeneration. Just as the Globe and The Rose portrayed the breadth and complexity of the lives Shakespeare uncovered on those stages, so The Storm was an apt choice to reflect the theatre experiences they hoped to project for their audiences; a reawakening to the awe-inspiring truths of our shared humanity, its beauty and its potential.

Since 1997, when it was established as a not-for-profit company, the theatre has drawn upon the resources of its founders, some acting friends and a growing cadre of professional associates whose commitment to theatre has been enhanced by the creative freedom fostered here; as a consequence, utilizing established classics, under-acknowledged gems from the world repertory and vigorous, new visions of life today, The Storm has succeeded in offering audiences compelling documentation of what it means to be human.

There have been a variety of storms - some intense, others brief, always restorative.

Welcome to our storm. Please come out for many more.

Finding The Storm

All Storm Theatre productions are presented in our new home at

The Church of Notre Dame

405 West 114th Street (at the corner of Morningside Drive)
two blocks from Columbia University
The theatre entrance is around the corner on Morningside Drive

View Larger Map

Subway:
Take the 1 train to 116th St - Columbia University and walk two blocks east on 114th Street.

Buses:
There is bus service along West 110th Street, Amsterdam Avenue, and Broadway.

Parking:
The nearest parking lots are located on 512 West 112th Street (corner of Amsterdam) and 543 West 110th Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam).

OPENS TONIGHT - The London Merchant

Tonight we open our latest production, The London Merchant (or The History of George Barnwell).

First performed in 1731, The London Merchant tells the story of of a young apprentice led astray by a courtesan.

The London Merchant was written by George Lillo, who a remarkable and singular literary figure despite his short theatrical career. Born in London in 1691, he was a jeweler by trade, and saw his first produced work (Silvia, or The Country Burial) in 1730, when he was 39.

The London Merchant, first performed in 1731, is widely cited as the first modern tragedy, primarily for Lillo's attention to the "domestic" issues confronting the common man, rather than to the more commonly-portrayed aristocracy. This marked an exceptional departure for Lillo and created a new genre of theatre which concentrated on the struggles of the working classes. Prior to this, the theatre of the period had predominantly focused on stories relating to the upper classes, biblical or classical themes. The new 'bourgeois drama' became popular across Europe, and gave Lillo a notable place in dramatic history. He wrote at least eight plays before his death in 1739.

Lillo's remarkable play has never before been produced in North America. The Storm Theatre is honored to present this play to our audience.

The London Merchant is on a strictly limited engagement, and runs through January 28th. Tickets are available now through SmartTix - don't miss your opportunity to see this groundbreaking play in its North American premiere!

Welcome to the Storm Theatre!

Welcome to the official blog of the Storm Theatre!

We are a non-profit theatre company in New York City, dedicated to bringing classical, lost and unjustly forgotten plays to our audience.

We hope you will join us soon at www.StormTheatre.com. And keep watching this space for more information on our company and upcoming productions!