Red Bull Theater has announced the cast for its benefit reading of The Convent of Pleasure by Margaret Cavendish, which will livestream March 14 at 7:30 PM ET. A recording of the reading will be available through 7 PM ET March 18. Tickets for the online presentation are "Pay What You Can."
Kim Weild will direct Heidi Armbruster, Becca Ayers, Talley Gale, Cloteal Horne, Rami Margron, Anthony Michael Martinez, Maria-Christina Oliveras, and Josh Tyson.
The Convent of Pleasure, a closet drama first published in 1668, imagines a feminist utopia as Lady Happy and her friends decide to seclude themselves in a community after eschewing social expectations and choosing to avoid marriage. When a mysterious Princess with a "masculine presence" arrives, however, the community faces a challenge.
A free, online, and interactive discussion of the play with Weild, Cavendish scholar Dr. Liza Blake, and members of the company will be streamed via YouTube March 17 at 7:30 PM ET.
The reading is presented in collaboration with R/18 Collective as a Women's History Month celebration. This will be one of the work's few public presentations in its centuries-long history, as closet dramas are written to be read rather than performed.
For tickets and more information, visit RedBullTheater.com.
