Double Bill

Still Desire You (a fresh adaptation of I Love You, Anne Murray, first produced in the 1980s) deals with issues that are central to the growing malaise of celebrity culture in our society. For some fans, innocent fantasies about their connection to the performer behind the song can become real and dangerous obsessions. Such is the story of David Stuart, a fundamentally decent man on trial for "the crime of loving a girl" who happens to be a pop icon. Still Desire You explores the slippery slope of a fan's delusions and, in the process, indicts the star-making machinery behind our communal obsession with celebrity. Fire explores the extraordinary relationship between Pentecostal Christianity, the birth of rock and roll, and the rise of right-wing fundamentalism as a force in American politics. Inspired by the lives of Jerry Lee Lewis and Reverend Jimmy Swaggart, who learned how to play on the same piano, Fire traces the rise and fall of Cale and Herschel, the sons of a Southern preacher. In the '50s Cale becomes a rock and roll star but, convinced he is damned for playing "the devil's music," embarks on a self-destructive rampage that nearly destroys him. By the 1980s Herschel has become a famous televangelist and is drawn into a dangerous mix of faith and right-wing politics. Caught between the two brothers is the woman who loves them both, Herschel's wife, Molly. A play about searching for salvation with your head, your heart, and your groin.