October 13th - November 18th, 2006

"In a word, Cairo is astonishing."
–Kyle Moore, The Tolucan Times
(read full review)

CREW
Director - Jon Cellini
Artistic Director - Stuart Rogers
Set Designer - Jeff McLaughlin
Producer - Douglas Lowry
Lighting Designer - Luke Moyer
Sound Designer - Thadeus Frazier-Reed
Graphic Designer - Sara Shapley
Publicist - David Elzer / Demand PR
Stage Manager - David P. Kronmiller

James Jennsen has informed his family that at midnight tonight, his deceased mother and grandparents are returning to pick him up in a blue '51 Chevy. Alarmed, his sisters and father gather for dinner at the soon-to-be-subdivided family farm in Cairo, Illinois. What begins as a humorous kitchen-sink drama unfolds into a poetic exploration of the spiritual and physical consequences of a family's disconnection, both from each other and the land they love.

In a word, Cairo is astonishing. We’ll start with that.

Plot-wise, it’s like this: In classic “eldest sibling” fashion, Jane (Mandy Levin) returns home to the family farm in Cairo, Illinois to try to patch up the ragged mess that her family has become due to the unsettling effect of an emotionally-disturbed brother (Nathan Brooks Burgess) who has announced that their dead mother and grandparents will be arriving at the stroke of midnight in a blue ’51 Chevy. What seems like a simple kitchen-sink drama, though, is thoroughly infused with magic and lifted throughout by Arthur Melville Pearson’s lyrical musings on a family life deeply connected to the soil. Aided by generous helpings of the poetry of Edgar Lee Masters (among others), the script alone is a strikingly beautiful work of art.

But what director Jon Cellini has elicited from his cast is what lifts this production into the stratosphere. While almost every performance here is utterly masterful (Courtney Lynn Iverson is sarcastic and lovably funny as the younger sibling who stayed home to raise a family, and James Handy does magnificent work as the blustering, widowed father), Burgess is a virtuoso turn as the enigmatic, mystical and disturbed only son. With a beautifully realized set and lighting by Jeff McLaughlin and Luke Moyer, Cairo is a thoroughly entrancing story shot through with the tension of a fishing line hard struck in an old farm pond.

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