Peterborough, NH – What do Picasso, Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, Thornton Wilder, and Matisse have in common? They all invented themselves in the famous Paris atelier of two American expats, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Gertrude Stein and a Companion, running from July 3rd – 14th, explores the 40-year love affair between these two great minds and enduring artists of the 20th century.

Win Wells’ witty and unconventional love story looks at Stein, an avant-garde novelist, poet, playwright and art collector, and her partner, editor and muse, Alice B. Toklas  –whose recipe for hashish brownies in her 1952 cookbook, Thornton Wilder called “the publicity stunt of the year.” In the early 1900s these women left behind their privileged American lives and found refuge, and each other, in bohemian Paris. Their encouragement of the “Lost Generation,” (a term coined by Stein) indelibly changed the artistic landscape of the time. ​

In a season full of performances by powerhouse women, two Broadway veterans and Players’ favorites return to bring Stein and Toklas to life. Becky London (Broadway's Marlene. Diana Vreeland in Full Gallop, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life... and more at the Players) plays Stein. Dale Hodges (Broadway's original production of Equus. Arsenic and Old Lace, Outside Mullingar and others at the Players) is Toklas. Gertrude Stein and a Companion won first prize at both the Edinburgh Festival and the Theatre Festival in Sydney, Australia.

 “The salon has always fascinated me, that existed in Paris that these two women ran, and where all of the major artists of the early 20th century met, and argued, and conversed, and exchanged ideas”, says Artistic Director Gus Kaikkonen, who also directs the piece. “It really was a matrix of so much of 20th century art and literature.” The play expounds upon how the relationship between Stein and Toklas, and those who attended their salon, affected their life and work in an enduring way.

Gertrude Stein and a Companion runs from July 3rd-14th and is exclusively sponsored by SoClean. Showtimes are Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 7:30pm, Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 4pm. In addition, there is a 2pm matinee on Tuesday, July 9th. Tickets and more information can be found on our website, or by calling the Box Office at (603) 924-7585. Rated PG-13.

Peterborough, NH – A chance encounter between a young American artist and an Iranian college student waiting for a ferry sets the scene for Mahida’s Extra Key to Heaven, by New Hampshire Playwright Russell Davis. Kicking off the theatre’s 86th year, the show opens on June 19th and runs through June 30th.

Directed by Players’ Artistic Director Gus Kaikkonen, Mahida’s Extra Key to Heaven gracefully plumbs the cultural collision between two very different families and brings into stark relief the disparity between our preconceived notions about those whose culture, race, or religion differs from our own. When Thomas offers Mahida shelter for the evening in his mother’s home, the simple offer triggers a chain of events that threatens to engulf them all. “I think clearly this play is driven in part by a desire to refute that kind of literal minded, black and white, opportunist thinking,” says playwright Russell Davis, “and to articulate how complex and gentle an alternative might be.”

Aliah Whitmore, a third generation Peterborough Player, appears in the title role of Mahida. She follows a long history of family members who’ve delighted the audiences of the Peterborough Players, including her grandfather, beloved stage and film actor James Whitmore, and her father, James Whitmore, Jr. She graces the Players’ stage for the first time. Players’ favorites Steven Michael Walters and Kathy Manfre return as Thomas and his mother Edna, respectively. Walters was most recently seen at the Players in Born Yesterday, and Peterborough resident Manfre appeared as Mrs. Tottendale in The Drowsy Chaperone. Rounding out the cast is newcomer Adham Haddara, a New York based actor at the Players for the first time, as Mahida’s brother Ramin. Playwright Davis is a resident of West Chesterfield, NH, having grown up in Europe and the Middle East, he came to the United States for college. His plays have been produced around the country, and he’s been the recipient of the Pew Fellowship for the Arts, among other recognition.

Of the play, Kaikkonen says that, “It’s definitely about America…there’s peril in the play. There’s danger in the play, and the peril and the danger comes out from the meeting of these two cultures – Iran and America – but it comes out in ways that are subtle and inevitable.”

Mahida’s Extra Key to Heaven runs from June 19th-30th and is sponsored in part by Atkins Callahan PLLC and the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript. Showtimes are Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 7:30pm, Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 4pm. In addition, there is a 2pm matinee on Tuesday, June 25th. Tickets and more information can be found on our website or by calling the Box Office at (603) 924-7585.