One Act Play Festival

The Voysey Inheritance
By Harley Granville-Barker, adaptation by David Mamet
April 17-19 & 23-26, 2008
Culbreth Theatre, 8pm

The University of Virginia Drama Department puts an exclamation point on its acclaimed and successful 2007-2008 season with The Voysey Inheritance.   David Mamet’s adaptation of Harley Granville-Barker’s 1905 drama, is a timeless and powerful reminder that while times may change, the most basic human tendencies and temptations are ever the same.

The Voysey Inheritance, directed by Robert Chapel, comes to the Culbreth Theatre stage from April 17-19 and 23-26, 2008.  Individual tickets are currently on sale, and all performances begin at 8pm.

Single ticket are $14 for adults, $12 for seniors and $8 for students and can be ordered by calling the Drama Box Office at 434-924-3376 or by visiting the Culbreth Theatre Monday through Friday between the hours of 1pm and 6pm. New this year, we are offering a 15% discount on all tickets and subscriptions to U.Va. Faculty and Staff.  Also, full-time U.Va. students can use their Arts Dollars as a form of payment to purchase both individual show and season tickets.  Visit www.virginia.edu/artsdollars for more information.

The play focuses on the response of its central character after he uncovers dark and long-held secrets of his family’s business, and finds that the reactions of his own family to those secrets and lies shake his values to their very core.

Director Robert Chapel is particularly struck by the timelessness of the play and the issues it raises.  “Greed is at the center of this play,” he said.  “Here is a play that was written 103 years ago but could easily have been written yesterday.  The temptations to make money in whatever devious means available and at any cost permeate our society today just as they once did in Edwardian England.”

He said he has been thinking of doing the play since first seeing it at the Edinburgh Festival in 1992, in Barker’s original full-length, five-act form.  “I loved it even in its longest form because it resonated, and continues to resonate with our world today and the various financial shenanigans that that we read and hear about every day.  What David Mamet did was essentially  trim the play while keeping the spirit of the original in every way.  The message is just as potent as or maybe even more potent than the original in that you get the message in a more focused period of time.  I believe what once was a play that lasted well over three hours is now told in two.”

Parking for The Voysey Inheritance is available at the brand new Culbreth Road Parking Garage located directly adjacent to the Drama Building that houses both the Helms and Culbreth theatres.  The parking garage and theatre are located on Culbreth Road which can now be accessed from Rugby Road or University Avenue.  Parking is free for theatre patrons in the Arts Grounds Parking Garage after 5pm on performance nights. 

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