Sep 11– 28   The Homecoming Harold Pinter A butcher, a chauffer, a boxer and a pimp, a philosopher and a woman, Ruth. Welcome to Pinter's bizarre household in London. Negotiations, sex roles, power, love and family all play a part in this riveting negotiation. It's a bizarre household and she seems to fit in quite cannily. The men of the family need someone like her, and as her husband is exiting for home in America, she decides to accept the proposition matter of factly presented to her; she will serve the men as cook, mistress, and whatever, and will pay for her keep by becoming a part time prostitute elsewhere.   Winner of the Critics' Award for Best Play of the Year.   "Bizarre, ominous and taunting.... A steadily absorbing, tantalizing and disturbing theatrical adventure.... Enthralling." N.Y. Post.

Oct 23-Nov 23   The Lady's Not for Burning Christopher Fry Thomas Mendip, a discharged soldier, weary of the world and eager to leave it, comes to a small town, announces he has committed murder and demands to be hanged. A philosophical humorist, Thomas is annoyed when the officials oppose his request, even believing he is not guilty of the crime he suggests. Shortly afterward, a young woman, Jennet, is brought before the Mayor for witchcraft, but for some strange reason she has no wish to be put to death! Thomas tries, in his own way, to prove to the official how absurd it would be to refuse to hang a man who wants to be hanged, and at the same time to kill an attractive woman who is not only guiltless, but doesn't want to die.   "A poetic fantasy of rare splendor and delight…a work of magical humor and deep beauty," —NY Herald-Tribune.   in repertory with   The Crucible Arthur Miller Winner of the 1953 Tony Award for Best Play. This exciting drama about the Puritan purge of witchcraft in old Salem is both a gripping historical play and a timely parable of our contemporary society.  The story focuses upon a young farmer, his wife, and a young servant-girl who maliciously causes the wife's arrest for witchcraft. The farmer brings the girl to court to admit the lie—and it is here that the monstrous course of bigotry and deceit is terrifyingly depicted. The farmer, instead of saving his wife, finds himself also accused of witchcraft and ultimately condemned with a host of others.   "A powerful drama." —NY Times. "Strongly written." —NY Daily News.

Jan 8-25   Hedda Gabler Henrik Ibsen At the center of Henrik Ibsen’s signature play is one of the greatest roles in modern drama, the fascinating Hedda Gabler, who finds herself stranded in a seemingly ordinary but dangerously imbalanced domestic system. Employing methods that virtually defined the modern psychological drama, Ibsen stealthily reveals the bitter conflicts and thwarted longings that lie just below the "civilized" transactions of daily life.   "…stunning…amazingly contemporary in its considerations of the purpose of life, of the preservation of dignity and integrity…the big issues people don't dare to think about. " —NY Times.   "Hedda Gabler has so many layers. The tragedy plays upon the irony, which acts upon fully drawn characters to make up a thoroughly modern work… " —Connecticut Post.   "When Henrik Ibsen…wrote Hedda Gabler 110 years ago, a woman's place in society was far different from what it is today. The fact that this psychological drama plays as well now as it did a century ago is apt tribute to the sheer genius of the playwright." —Record-Journal.

Feb 12-Mar 1   No Way to Treat a Lady Douglas Cohen This theatrically charged musical comedy thriller about a publicity crazed actor turned killer and the endearing detective who pursues him is based on the best selling novel that became a renowned movie. It is a devilish blend of humor, romance and murder with four meaty roles, two requiring great versatility: the killer adopts a myriad of disguises including a tango instructor, French waiter, female barfly and priest while one actress plays the detective's mother, the killer's mother and three of his victims. This winner of a 1987 Richard Rodgers grant was nominated for Best Revival by the New York Outer Critics Circle.   "A fine way to treat a musical! A real winner." N.Y. Post.   "Catchy tunes and snappy lyrics." N.Y. Times.   "A lighthearted romp." AP.   "A fine and dandy way to treat an audience.... It should be on Broadway." N.Y. Observer.

Apr 4 - 20   Galileo Bertolt Brecht   "The practice of science would seem to call for valor."--Galileo   The time is of the emergence of the age of reason when Galileo was teaching young students the incredible account of how the earth moves around the sun, rather than the other way around. His heretical announcement, that both the moon and Jupiter only reflect the sun's light, is brought to the attention of the church and Galileo is summoned to the Vatican. His friends abandon him and his appeal to the Pope is intercepted by the inquisitor. Galileo recants, but even while imprisoned continues his writings surreptiously.   An amazing piece of theatre, Brecht's Galileo is the third in MET"s Galileo Project--Placing Science Centerstage.  As in the Renaissance, across Kansas and Missouri, we stand at the edge of a new stage of discovery. Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre proposes to let the curtain rise.   "Unquestionably Brecht's masterpiece." - N.Y. Daily News.

May 8 - 24   Kiss of the Spider Woman Kander and Ebb and McNally Winner of the Tony Award for Best Broadway Musical, Kiss of the Spider Woman revamps a harrowing tale of persecution into a dazzling spectacle that juxtaposes gritty realities with liberating fantasies. Cell mates in a Latin American prison, Valentin is a tough revolutionary undergoing torture and Molina is an unabashed homosexual serving eight years for deviant behavior. Molina shares his fantasies about an actress with Valentin. One of her roles is a Spider Woman who kills with a kiss.   "Thrilling."-- N.Y. Times.   "Compelling, beautiful, funny and moving....[Has] a cinematic fluidity and a poetic charge." -- N.Y. Daily News.   "Creates an entire world out of a prison cell.... Dazzling."-- Newsweek.   "Capture[s] the magic musicals were meant for."-- Wall Street Journal.   "[A] show with a wild heart and a fresh eye."-- N.Y. Newsday.