Get fired up to see the Mercury Players' final staged reading of the season with John Muggleton's Burn, which turns up the heat, and sizzles with plot twists.
Local actor Dan Leckey directs his first Mercury Players' staged reading with the cleverly and intricately written play Burn, which was nominated the best new play of 2017 by the Capital Critics’ Circle. Leckey had been playing around with the idea of trying his hand at directing his first production with Mercury, and when he was given the script to read and asked if he wanted to direct his interested was immediately sparked.
"After reading it, it seemed like an ideal show for the group to put on so I said yes," said Leckey. "I have directed a few one-act plays about 20 years ago, but have never settled in one city long enough since then to feel the urge to do it again."
It follows old friends Samira (Jess Mattin), David (Erin Bulter) and Robert (Chadd Cawson) who are the only three left of the original gang after their good friend and talented writer Paul (Phillip Allingham) suddenly died the year prior. The gang has also been grappling with the mysterious disappearance of Robert's wife and famous mystery writer Tara Waters (Christine Szeryk), who Robert insists to his friends he believes is still alive.
The plot, and tensions thicken when Paul's estranged daughter Eve (Dayna Corbett) reaches out and asks to meet the three friends for the first time, stating that she has something important to deliver. As time passes after the initial first encounter with their old chum's daughter Eve becomes awkward, eerie, strange and even a tad sinister and as the evening unravels, chaos erupts with hidden secrets revealed.
For those who have never been to a staged reading it is theatre in its simplest form with the intent to encourage up-and-coming directors and actors, along with experienced ones. Mercury Players’ staged readings have only three rehearsals and involve minimal movement. No set, no dramatic light changes, no major props and costumes are minimal at best with just the actors interacting and performing with their scripts in arm's reach.
Narrated by Tom Przywara Burn ignites the stage inside Sands Chapel for one night only on March 28 at 7 p.m.
"One of the great pleasures of the process so far has been seeing how quickly the cast members are fleshing out these characters even though they have had very little time to familiarize themselves with the story," said Leckey. "It is a real tribute to the instinctual talent these actors have that they can fashion very believable people so quickly with just their vocal delivery."
Admission for Burn will be by donation at the Sands Chapel door, which will open at 6:30 p.m. Those planning to attend can pre-register on the Mercury Players website at mercuryplayers.org or for more information can contact Louise at louise.phillips@mercuryplayers.org. Refreshments will also be available during a brief intermission.
"The audience should leave the evening having been thoroughly entertained and intrigued by the performances," said Leckey. "The show is an illustration of a group of seemingly good friends, who when encountering a situation which places each of them under varying amounts of stress, find that the secrets they keep and the masks they wear for each other and the world in general start to crack and flake away, revealing things long hidden. It should be a very enjoyable voyage for the audience."
