Anything I Tell You Three Times....

It's the hot theatre story of the day, apparently. Three different sources are carrying it, so it must be hot, right?

The Drama Queen is back from vacation, and she kicks off with it:

After beginning his tenure as the Caldwell Theatre Company's new artistic director with the smash hit world premiere of Vices: A Love Story, Clive Cholerton is hardly playing it safe or traditional with his second summer show...

Kevin Thompson of the Palm Beach Post adds his two cents:

...local theaters stage fun, upbeat productions during the summer months. The Caldwell Theatre recently did that with Vices: A Love Story.

But it’s going in a completely different direction with The Whipping Man, a somber drama by Matthew Lopez.

Beau Higgins at BroadwayWorld.com caps it off with a quote from Caldwell's artistic director, Clive Cholerton:

"I wanted to challenge the tradition of producing lighter fare during the summer season. The themes of The Whipping Man, which include personal choice, personal responsibility, and the essence of faith, are so universal, that I knew audiences would be drawn to it. To not produce the play would have seemed negligent on my part."

So what's it about? From the Caldwell Theatre Company website:

The Whipping Man is set in a crumbling home in Richmond, VA, in the days following the end of the Civil War. The day Lee surrendered to Grant was the first day of Passover in 1865, and the play takes place during the middle of that period. The house was once the grand home of the DeLeons, an influential, Jewish, southern family. The DeLeons' slaves adopted their faith. The former slaves and self-identified Jews are forced to face their own contradictions as they celebrate the historic freeing of the Hebrews from captivity. This play is about captives confronting their captors, and the realization that with free will comes responsibilities which far outreach anyone's comprehension.

Cholerton has cast a prize crew that includes John Archie,Nick Duckhart, and Brandon Morris. You may have seen Morris on Burn Notice as Agent Lane of the FBI. And now you have a chance to really see his chops.

The Whipping Man opens next week, August 12, and plays through August 30 at the Caldwell Theatre Company in Boca Raton.