Lunacy

Lunacy received it's world premier at the 2007 Cleveland Play House Fusion Fest, with a widely praised production by Dobama Theater. Set in early 19th century Philadelphia, Cornelia beseeches Forrest to use Shakespeare to connect with her father, bringing resolution to the stage and audience. Lunacy features just enough history to add a layer of complexity and plausibility to the confusion.
Step backstage with the cast to explore what is real, imaginary and how can we benefit from both. While truly an odd pair visits the asylum, Forrest studies for the role of a lifetime, Cornelia finds a new way to communicate with her father and reconcile with her father's impending death, while Benjamin regains his vibrancy and finds a path towards ultimate resolution. The characters present effective contrasts, challenging the actors.
2 m / 1 w / 2 acts/seven scenes, 85 minutes
The year is 1827 and the rising young Shakespearean actor Edwin Forrest is preparing to play King Lear when a young woman interrupts him with a proposal: Meet the perfect Lear, her father. If Edwin follows this stranger is it an act of kindness, lunacy, or an actors dream come true. What is the price of perfection?

Characters
Cornelia Lamb – A Quaker woman who supervises the Friends Asylum
Edwin Forrest – The rising young Shakespearean actor, twenty-one years old, who is preparing for his production of King Lear.
Benjamin Lamb – Cornelia's father, a former schoolteacher, now a patient at Friends Asylum, who believes he is King Lear.

Setting
Walnut St. Theatre/Friends Asylum, Philadelphia/Bowery Theatre, NYC

Time
Spring, Summer and Winter, 1827

History
2007 – Dobama Theatre (FusionFest ’07) Cleveland Ohio
2006 - The Cleveland Play House, Next Stage Festival of New Play Readings
Perlman takes us on a haunting exploration of not only insanity and "Lear," but also the power of the family to comfort, that moment of life called death to unite, and - ultimately - the power of the theater to heal... [packing] layer upon layer of richness into 80 compact, funny and emotionally wringing minutes.
Tony Brown, Cleveland Plain Dealer, 5.07.07
"Every once in a while a theatre-goer sees a play and a performance so stunning that the only word that describes it is mesmerizing." (LUNACY)
Roy Berko 
http://royberkinfo.blogspot.com, 2007
"Lunacy," by Northeast Ohio writer Sandra Perlman, might at first glance appear to be just a clever riff on Shakespeare's "King Lear." But Perlman is a smarter and braver writer than that.
She takes us on a haunting exploration of not only insanity and "Lear," but also the power of the family to comfort, that moment of life called death to unite, and -- ultimately -- the power of the theater to heal.
… packs layer upon layer of richness into 80 compact, funny and emotionally wringing minutes.
So many new plays seem designed to make the theater less accessible to today's audiences. This one, happily and profoundly, invites us all backstage, where the theater lives and our moments of lunacy await the waxing of the moon.
Dobama's 'Lunacy' is a crazy-good premiere.

Tony Brown
Plain Dealer Theater Critic
Lunacy (full play)

photo credit: Meyerangelo; Dobama Theatre