Celadine
Celadine takes place in 1670 and focuses on its namesake Celadine (Giselle Wolf) who is a young woman playwright (though not terribly successful) and the owner of a coffee house in London. Though Celadine is free-spirited, she mourns the loss of her daughter Margaret who was lost during a storm at sea. She is ably and loyally assisted in the coffee house by Mary (Holly Hawkins), a former prostitute who she found dying in the streets and whose life she saved. Their newest assistant is Jeffrey (Will Barker), a young boy found by Mary, who has not been able to speak since he was 14 years old due to his tongue being cut out for speaking against the church.
When Elliot (Michael A. Newcomer) an actor calls at the coffee house to ask Celadine to write a play for him, Mary becomes suspicious of him, while Celadine finds herself attracted to the man. Another visitor to knock on the door of the coffee house is Rowley (Larry Cedar), the father of Margaret. It appears that he has called for a specific purpose, to ask Celadine to spy for King Charles II to aid in uncovering an assassination plot. And who might the culprit be?
The play is directed by Andrew Barnicle. The coffee house set is a charmer by Stephen Gifford and the period costumes by A. Jeffrey Schoenberg are styled perfectly to the time. Celadine was, undoubtedly, written as a charade; it even includes a sword fight. However, it doesn’t resonate as a comedy and the actors probably had more fun performing in it than the audience did watching it.
The play: CELADINE
Where: The Colony Theatre
555 North Third Street
Burbank, CA
Tickets: Colony Box Office at (838) 558-7000, ex. 15,
online at www.colonytheatre.org