The Late Great Henry Boyle by David MacGregor |
The Late Great Henry Boyle is an enchanting new
play by emerging Livonia playwright, David MacGregor. In this charming
love story, we meet the endearingly befuddled Henry Boyle, an intensely
sincere and private professor of medieval studies recently ditched by his
wife. A complete social misfit who doesn’t even watch television,
Boyle camps out in his tiny office and tries to rebuild his familiar and
comfortable life.With the encouragement of his colleague, Dr. Winslow Saxonhouse,
Boyle develops an impressive absinthe habit and writes a novel that inexplicably
makes him an overnight pop culture sensation. Despite his psychotic ex-military
literary agent, intense media scrutiny and recurring hallucinations about
giant rodents, a chance meeting with a damsel named Rachel just might be
the only thing that can pull Boyle back from the edge.
Originally titled Mainstream, The Late Great
Henry Boyle was first presented as a staged reading by HeartlandeTheatre
for the 1999 TreeTown Theatre Festival, Performance Network’s summer
guest season. In 2001, the script was selected as one of eleven finalists
for the prestigious Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting,
presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2002, The
Late Great Henry Boyle received its first professional production
at Timothy Busfield’s The B Street Theatre in Sacramento, California.
Directed by PRTC Artistic Director Guy Sanville, the cast
included Randall Godwin, Paul Hopper, John Lepard, Wayne David Parker and
Inga R. Wilson.
photo of John Lepard, courtesy of George Spelvin
Critics' Quotes
"funny and touching… John Lepard invests Boyle with a disheveled angularity that’s both pathetic and endearing, and director Guy Sanville shapes the proceedings with the surest touch." Terry Pow "From start to finish, a funny, enchanting, well-acted and well-written treat." Ann Stewart |
