Lillian Hellman Festival
Festival Kickoff | Buy Pass | About | Autumn Garden | The Little Foxes |Scoundral Time
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Lillian Hellman is the playwright of the American classics The Children’s Hour, Another Part of the Forest and Toys in the Attic, among other plays. She contributed lyrics to the Leonard Bernstein musical Candide, and was nominated twice for the Academy Award as a screenwriter, for the World War II drama The North Star and for her screen adaptation of The Little Foxes. From 1935 through 1946, she wrote regularly for Hollywood studios, but by the late ‘40s she had fallen victim to the blacklist and did not write another movie until she adapted The Children’s Hour for the screen in 1961. A vocal Stalinist, she was spied on by the FBI at various points from 1938 to at least 1970. Her first memoir, An Unfinished Woman, won a 1970 National Book Award. A chapter from her second memoir, Pentimento, was made into the film Julia, though a scandal ensued when it became known that the chapter was fictional. She lived off and on for most of three decades with the mystery writer Dashiell Hammett, who based the fearless and playful Nora Charles in The Thin Man—as well as that book’s villainess, the compulsive liar Mimi Jorgenson—on her. Among the many honors she received were two New York Drama Critics Circle Awards, a Gold Medal from the Academy of Arts and Letters for Distinguished Achievement in the Theater, and a National Book Award. She leaves a legacy of works as relevant today as when she penned them. |
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Lillian Hellmania! |
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...a moveabe feast of a festival celebrating the work of one of the most talented and controversial American writers of the twentieth century, will play a broken run this fall and winter as three of her best known works are staged by three of Chicago's favorite Autumn Garden November 13-December 21, 2008 The Little Foxes January 8-March 8, 2009 Scoundrel Time January 30-March 8, 2009 The Festival kicks off on November 17, 2008 at City Lit Theatre. Get first hand information on each company's production, and see a scene from one or more shows; meet with members of the three theatre companies; and enjoy an informative discussion led by a Hellman scholar. |
Autumn Garden First produced in 1951, "The Autumn Garden" is Hellman's most mature and emotionally honest play, with a rich cast of imperfect yet noble characters struggling to find comfort amidst the simple tragedy of being human. In this introspective and rarely produced play, old friends gather in a summer home to rediscover connections, rekindle lost relationships, and find peace - only to find that they can't escape from the choices of their past. Newly appointed and Jeff Award winning Artistic Director Nathaniel Swift returns to direct Hellman's masterpiece!
The Little Foxes "The Little Foxes" is Lillian Hellman's most popular work of drama. The sibling characters at the center of her hugely successful play are caught in a cycle of revenge as ripe and bloodthirsty as any classic Greek tragedy. Driven by insatiable greed to acquire ever more wealth, the Hubbards will steal, plot, and sacrifice all family ties as they attempt to invest in one of the first cotton mills to industrialize the New South. While literary critics argue whether the popularity of Hellman's play is due to its value as an allegory or its appeal as a satire, the story maintains an enduring relevance, dramatizing the predatory capitalism that Hellman felt threatens the American ethic.
Scoundrel Time City Lit's "Scoundrel Time" is a world premiere adaptation of Hellman's legendary memoir of going up against the House Un-American Activities Committee at the height of the McCarthy era. In 1952 Hellman refused to name names before HUAC, telling the committee, "I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions." She was blacklisted for years, but lived to tell the tale—her way. Adrianne Cury directs the adaptation by City Lit artistic director Terry McCabe. Scoundrel Time begins previews on January 30, opens for the press on February 3, and runs through March 8.
Tickets are available online! There is a smal $2 processing fee.