Handcart Ensemble

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Poet Paul Muldoon on Handcart’s The Burial at Thebes

“I simply can’t imagine a better production of The Burial at Thebes. Handcart Ensemble is a spectacularly gifted group, absolutely equal to the subtleties of Heaney’s text. I’ll go anywhere to see anything they do.” —Paul Muldoon

[artwork by Benny Cadenas]

The Mistress of the Inn

An original translation of the Carlo Goldoni play “La Locandiera”

A much-wooed but unrelenting hostess of an inn meets a visiting gentleman with the distinction of taking no interest in her whatsoever. She immediately plots to remedy this state of affairs. This 18th century comedic gem has been newly rendered in a contemporary prose form that retains the soulful flair of the Italian.

There were 11 performances at American Theatre of Actors, Sargent Stage, from March 1 - 10, 2001.

Mistress was a “Pick of the Week” at New York Theatre Experience, where Martin Denton described this “raucous, high-spirited comedy” as “a bright and funny entertainment, one that solidifies Handcart’s reputation for worthy, adventurous fare.”

“Handcart’s finely tuned ensemble,” according to Julie Halpern of the Off-Off-Broadway Review, “never deteriorated into slapstick or obscenity, both of which are common traps in commedia productions. This production should serve as an example to show that updated comic classics need not be vulgar to be uproariously entertaining.”

The Cast

Kevin Ashworth
Veronique Enos
Ian Gonzalez
Meredith Higbee
Tod Mason*
Barrett Ogden
J. Scott Reynolds
Carolyn Stone*

The Crew
Director Adam Houghton
Asst Director Tamara Shelp
Translators Michael McCurdy / J. Scott Reynolds
Costumes Mireille Enos
Stage Manager / Lighting Designer Tamara Shelp
Properties Christy Summerhays

About Us

Old Wine in New Bottles

Handcart Ensemble produces new adaptations, new translations, and new works for the theater, drawing primarily from classical sources. Read our mission statement for more information.

Gearing Up for 2008/09

Thanks to our patrons for supporting Oedipus at Colonus, touted by NYTheatre.com as “another feather in Handcart’s cap as the city’s most reliable and interesting presenter of contemporary renditions of classic theatre texts.” Our one-night benefit performance of W.B. Yeats’s Purgatory was another success, its sell-out box office returns laying the groundwork for an ambitious 2008/09 season that will include Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood as you’ve never seen it before. Watch for more details on this thrillingly crafted production, arriving in New York after years of development and acclaim at international theater festivals…

Copyright © 2001 - 2008 Handcart Ensemble. Last updated January 20, 2007