Bradbury play returning to local stage
Photos/Special to The Source
Ken Bradbury’s “Couplings” show returns to Jacksonville after an eight-year hiatus and will be performed at Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church on Friday and Saturday, July 10 and 11, at 7 p.m., as well as a matinee performance on Sunday, July 12 at 2 p.m.
“Couplings” tells the stories of eight couples, according to late playwright Ken Bradbury, as quoted in 2018. “Eight very different types of relationships, and our actors span the age gamut from eight years old to folks in their seventies. It’s a fun evening of theatre.”
Bradbury had said that the idea for “Couplings” sprung from a conversation he had with one of his college students who was shocked to find out that his parents had attended Woodstock. “It occurred to me,” said Bradbury at that time, “that there are so many things that one generation doesn’t know about another.”
The playwright had said he mined his script from couples that he actually knows … a young couple trying to remember how to “woo” each other, a couple who’ve now been married three times, an older couple for whom memory has become an increasing problem, a wild Italian man and his wife who tend to scare their grandchildren with their shouting and arguing, a teenage couple trying unsuccessfully to carry on a relationship through social media, a pair of children experiencing their first taste of “going together,” and an older gentlemen who speaks to a spouse who’s no longer with him. “It’s a very sweet mix of very real people,” Bradbury had said.
The show features Keith Bradbury, Frances Brockhouse, Ed Cannon, Ginny Fanning, Bentley Gray, Tammy Guthrie, Terri Kimler, Kevin Klein, Avery Leonard, Audra Nelson, Max Nelson, Drew Snodgrass, Lily Snodgrass, Mike Schneider and Roger Wainwright.
Admission is $10 at the door, with general admission seating. Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church is located at 1447 Merritt Rd. in Jacksonville.
All proceeds benefit The Ken Bradbury Foundation, which supports music and theatre programs for area youth.
