41st Season • 393rd Production JULIANNE ARGYROS STAGE / SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 17, 2004

David Emmes Martin Benson PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

presents the West Coast premiere of

BY William Nicholson

SCENIC AND COSTUME DESIGN LIGHTING DESIGN SOUND DESIGN Angela Balogh Calin York Kennedy Karl Fredrik Lundeberg

PRODUCTION MANAGER STAGE MANAGER Jeff Gifford *Jamie A. Tucker

DIRECTED BY Martin Benson

HONORARY PRODUCERS Sue and Ralph Stern

“The Retreat From Moscow” was first produced at the Chichester Festival in October 1999 and was first produced in New York City on October 23, 2003, at the Booth Theatre by Susan Quint Gallin, Stuart Thompson, Ron Kastner, True Love Productions, Mary Lu Roffe and Jam Theatricals

The Retreat from Moscow • SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P1

CAST OF CHARACTERS (In order of appearance) Edward ...... Nicholas Hormann* Jamie ...... John Sloan* Alice ...... Linda Gehringer*

LENGTH Approximately two hours, including one 15-minute intermission.

PRODUCTION STAFF Casting ...... Joanne DeNaut Assistant to the Director ...... Valerie Rachelle Production Assistant ...... Nina Evans Stage Management Intern ...... Cristin Downs

Please refrain from unwrapping candy or making other noises that may disturb surrounding patrons. The use of cameras and recorders in the theatre is prohibited. Smoking is not permitted anywhere in the theatre. Cellular phones, beepers and watch alarms should be turned off or set to non-audible mode during the performance.

* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers.

Official Airline Media Partner

P2 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • The Retreat from Moscow The Wellspring and the Metaphor

riting is an odd enterprise. Why take the frag- much I hurt. I lie to survive. I tell a story of myself that ments of lived experience and rearrange them in I hope will make others love and admire me. But more some new pattern? Why tell stories at all? For a and more, I write to strip away these lies, and say Look, Wwhile I supposed the urge came from a need to this is how it really is. What then? I look. I recognize tidy up the mess of life, to impose meaning on the the truth. That’s all. No moral. No lesson. No conso- meaningless. More recently, I have come to see that I lation. And yet it’s profoundly satisfying. This is the am in the grip of a greater drive, which I name with experience the great writers give me. It’s what I’m try- some hesitation, because it seems too grand. I am try- ing to do in my own work. ing, clumsily, to reach the truth of my life. This is hard. –William Nicholson Like everyone else, I tell lies all the time, most of all to Introduction to The Retreat from Moscow myself. I lie about who I am and what I want and how Anchor Books, New York, 2004

Marshal Ney leading the rearguard, engraved by Henry Wolf

"A huge flock of ravens wheeled croaking over the city, and although the sun still shone, no one could fail to notice the autumnal chill of the late afternoons and early mornings. Perhaps it was this, or the first light fall of snow that soon disappeared, that made the commanders of the doomed army so gloomy and apprehensive, despite their presence here in the enemy capital, with an army of 108,000 men around them… He was in a gloomy indecisive mood. He knew that his sole hope of emerging from Russia with the minimum prestige [meant] he had to get back and soon, before the heavy snow began to fall." –R. F. Delderfied, The Retreat from Moscow, Atheneum, NY, 1967

The Retreat from Moscow •SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P3 Both Sides Now Marriages are made in Heaven. A Roman divorced from his wife, being highly –Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Aylmer's Field blamed by his friends, who demanded, “Was she not chaste?” Was she not fair? Was she not fruitful?” holding out his shoe, asked them whether it was If marriages are made in Heaven, they should be not new and well made. “Yet,” added he, “none of happier. you can tell me where it pinches.” –Thomas Southerne, The Fatal Marriage (1694) –“Aemilius Paulus” from Lives, Plutarch

After marriage arrives a reaction, sometimes a big, Marriage is a noose. sometimes a little, one; but it comes sooner or later, –Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote and must be tided over by both parties if they desire the rest of their lives to go * * * with the current. –Rudyard Kipling, Plain How To Be Happy Though Tales from the Hills Married –book title, by The Rev. E. J. Hardy, In married life, three is 1910 company and two none. –Oscar Wilde, The Marriage is that relation Importance of Being Earnest between man and woman in which the independence * * * is equal, the dependence mutual, and the obligation Where's the man could ease a heart reciprocal. Like a satin gown? –Louis K. Anspacher –Dorothy Parker, “The Satin Dress”

A good marriage is that in which each appoints the Yet this be the need of woman, this her curse: other guardian of his solitude. Once the realization To raise her little gifts, and give, and give, is accepted that even between the closest human Because the throb of giving's sweet to bear. beings infinite distances continue to exist, a –Dorothy Parker, “I Know I Have Been Happiest” wonderful living side by side can grow up, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which Hail wedded love, mysterious law, true source makes it possible for each to see the other whole Of human offspring, sole propriety, against the sky. In Paradise of all things common else. –Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters –John Milton, Paradise Lost

* * * * * *

More than man desires to marry, woman desires to Children begin by loving their parents; after a time be married. they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive –Talmud: Yebamoth, 113A them. –Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance

P4 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • The Retreat from Moscow LINDA GEHRINGER NICHOLAS HORMANN JOHN SLOAN Alice Edward Jamie

Artist Biographies

*LINDA GEHRINGER (Alice) appeared Three Sisters, Catherine in The Heiress, zons, the New York Shakespeare Fes- at SCR in The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Edward/Betty in Cloud 9 and Ann tival, Second Stage, Chelsea Theatre The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, Stanton in All the King’s Men. She Center and The Group. In July 2004 Relatively Speaking, The Carpetbag- holds an MFA from the University of he appeared in new plays by Beth ger’s Children, Getting Frankie Mar- Minnesota and has received numerous Henley and Joe Hortua at Robert Red- ried—and Afterwards, Hold Please, A critical awards. Her television roles ford’s Sundance Theatre Lab. At SCR Delicate Balance, All My Sons, Arca- include four seasons as Fontana on he has played Tobias in A Delicate dia, Good As New and as Helen Gaha- “Evening Shade” and guest appear- Balance, Henry Higgins in Pygmalion gan Douglas in But Not for Me. Most ances on “Boston Legal,” “The West (Drama-Logue Award), Charles Con- recently she appeared at Baltimore Wing,” “The Practice,” “Ally McBeal,” domine in Blithe Spirit (Drama-Logue Center Stage in Picnic. Performances “Providence,” “Touched by an Angel,” Award), Teddy in The Homecoming, at other Southern California theatres “The Larry Sanders Show,” “Law and Leonard in Making It, John in Lips To- include Be Aggressive and Light Up the Order: Criminal Intent,” “Boomtown,” gether, Teeth Apart, Prosper Blondlot Sky at La Jolla Playhouse, The Poison and a recurring role on “The Divi- in The Company of Heaven, Spindle- Tree at Mark Taper Forum and sion.” She also appeared in the film quick in Boundary Waters, Tesman in Strange Snow at Laguna Playhouse. As Good as It Gets. Hedda Gabler and Beverly Carlton in Ms. Gehringer has worked at Wash- The Man Who Came to Dinner. Roles ington’s Arena Stage, Boston’s Hunt- *NICHOLAS HORMANN (Edward) ap- elsewhere include Atticus Finch, Lau- ington Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, peared last season in the New York rence Olivier, Benedick and Cyrano the Berkshire Theatre Festival, The premiere of Charles Mee’s Wintertime. de Bergerac. He has performed at the Ojai Playwrights Conference, New He made his Broadway debut in 1973 Kennedy Center, Yale Repertory, Long York Stage and Film and spent seven with the New Phoenix Repertory Wharf, McCarter (Princeton), Hunting- seasons as a company member at the Company in The Visit and Love for ton (Boston), Williamstown, The Old Dallas Theatre Center. Roles include Love directed by Harold Prince. Other Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, Mark Taper Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire, Broadway appearances include Exe- Forum, the Ahmanson, ACT, Pasadena Regina in The Little Foxes, Wanda in cution of Justice, St. Joan and Moose Playhouse, ACT (Seattle), Milwaukee The Waiting Room, Merteuil in Les Li- Murders. Off-Broadway he has per- Repertory, Alliance Theatre (Atlanta), aisons Dangereuses, Bette in The Mar- formed in new works at the Manhat- the O’Neill Conference and Sundance. riage of Bette and Boo, Olga in The tan Theatre Club, Playwrights Hori- Television appearances include “The

The Retreat from Moscow •SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P5 Wonder Years” (Emmy nomination), write, directed first into novels, was duced here. He has distinguished “Seinfeld,” “Frasier,” “According to channeled into television drama. His himself in the staging of contempo- Jim,” “Murphy Brown,” “Encore, En- plays for television include Shadow- rary work, including Horton Foote’s core,” “The Nanny,” “Profiler,” “City lands and Life Story, both of which The Carpetbagger’s Children and the Guys,” “Reasonable Doubts” and “The won the BAFTA Best Television world premiere of Getting Frankie West Wing.” Mr. Hormann attended Drama award in their year; other Married—and Afterwards, the criti- Oberlin College and the Yale School award-winners were Sweet As You cally acclaimed California premiere of of Drama. He lives in Los Angeles Are and The March. In 1988 he re- William Nicholson’s , with his wife and son. ceived the Royal Television Society’s the Southern California premiere of Writer’s Award. His first play, an Michael Healey’s The Drawer Boy; *JOHN SLOAN (Jamie) is making his adaptation of Shadowlands for the and the West Coast premieres of SCR debut. New York theatre credits stage, was Evening Standard Best Peter Hedges’ Good As New and Mar- include As You Like It at the 78th Play of 1990, and went on to a Tony tin McDonagh’s The Lonesome West. Street Theatre Lab, Twelfth Night at La Award-winning run on Broadway. He has won accolades for his direc- MaMa, Miss Lulu Bett at The Mint The- He was nominated for an Oscar for tion of five major works by George atre Co., Maybe Baby, It’s You at the the screenplay of the film version, Bernard Shaw, including the Los An- Soho Playhouse, Anne Frank and Me which was directed by Richard Atten- geles Drama Critics Circle (LADCC) at the American Jewish Theatre, Let’s borough and starred Anthony Hop- Award-winners Major Barbara, Mis- Play Two at Incite Productions and kins and Debra Winger. Since then alliance and Heartbreak House. Doctor Faustus at The Liminal Stage. he has written more films – Sarafina, Among the numerous world pre- Regional theatre credits include Love’s Nell, , Grey Owl, and mieres he has directed are Tom Stre- Labour’s Lost, Spinning into Butter, A Gladiator (as co-writer), for which he lich’s BAFO and Margaret Edson’s Skull in Connemara and Amy’s View received a second Oscar nomination. Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit, which he at the Denver Center Theatre Compa- He has written and directed his own also directed at Seattle Repertory The- ny, Holiday Memories at the Alabama film, , and three further stage atre and the Alley Theatre in Hous- Shakespeare Festival, Last Night of plays, Map of the Heart, Katherine ton. He has directed American clas- Ballyhoo at the Intiman Theatre and Howard and The Retreat from sics including Ah, Wilderness!, A The Fantasticks at the Alma Theatre. Moscow. His novel for older chil- Streetcar Named Desire, A Delicate Film credits include Returning Mickey dren, , won the Balance and All My Sons. Mr. Ben- Stern, The Mountain King, Divided Smarties Prize Gold Award on publi- son has been honored with the We Stand and Telling Lies in America. cation in 2000, and the Blue Peter Drama-Logue Award for his direction On television he has appeared on Book of the Year Award in 2001. Its of 21 productions and received “One Life to Live,” “The District,” sequel, , was LADCC Distinguished Achievement in “Boston Public,” “JAG,” “Tru Calling” published in May 2001, and the final Directing awards an unparalleled and “American Dreams.” volume in the trilogy, , in seven times for the three Shaw pro- May 2002. He lives in Sussex with ductions, John Millington Synge’s PLAYWRIGHT, his wife Virginia and their three chil- Playboy of the Western World, Arthur DIRECTOR & DESIGNERS dren. Miller’s The Crucible, Sally Nemeth’s Holy Days and Wit. He also directed WILLIAM NICHOLSON (Playwright) MARTIN BENSON (Director/Artistic the film version of Holy Days using joined BBC Television after college, Director), co-founder of SCR with his the original SCR cast. Along with where he worked as a documentary colleague David Emmes, has directed Emmes, he accepted SCR’s 1988 Tony film maker. There his ambition to nearly one third of the plays pro- Award for Outstanding Resident Pro-

P6 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • The Retreat from Moscow fessional Theatre and won the 1995 Ivona, Princess of Burgundia for the Repertory; high end residential de- Theatre LA Ovation Award for Life- Odyssey Theatre, Blood Poetry signs in Tahoe, Santa Monica and San time Achievement. Mr. Benson re- (Drama-Logue Award) for Theatre 40, Francisco; and a new medical facility ceived his BA in Theatre from Califor- Ancestral Voices for the Falcon The- in Walnut Creek, CA. A graduate of nia State University, San Francisco. atre. She has worked extensively in the California Institute for the Arts film and television in the U.S. and and the Yale School of Drama, Mr. ANGELA BALOGH CALIN (Scenic/Cos- Romania, having 16 design credits Kennedy lives in Berkeley, CA. tume Design) designed Mr. Mar- with I.R.S. Media, Cannon Films, PBS, malade, Intimate Exchanges, Terra Full Moon Entertainment and Roma- KARL FREDRIK LUNDEBERG (Sound Nova and the Theatre for Young Au- nian Films. She graduated with an Design) composed the music and diences productions of The Wind in MFA in set and costume design from sound for SCR’s productions of The the Willows, The Emperor’s New the Academy of Arts in Bucharest. Drawer Boy, The Dazzle and The Clothes and Sideways Stories from Company of Heaven. He is a Wayside School at SCR last season. YORK KENNEDY (Lighting Design) CBS/Sony recording artist who has Her previous SCR credits include set has designed for theatres across the recorded four albums with his and costume design for The Carpet- country including Berkeley Rep, ACT, jazz/world music group Full Circle. bagger’s Children, Making It, The The Old Globe, Seattle Rep, The He has performed extensively Lonesome West; set design for Play Alley Theatre, Dallas Theatre Center, throughout the United States, Canada, Strindberg; and sets and costumes for Yale Rep, Brooklyn Academy of Scandinavia, continental Europe, SCR’s Educational Touring Produc- Music and the Whitney Museum in Japan and Brazil. As a composer of tions from 1998 to present. She is a New York. His awards for theatrical contemporary classical music, his resident designer at A Noise Within lighting design include the Drama- works have been performed by a va- where her costume designs include Logue, San Diego Drama Critics Cir- riety of orchestras, among them the The Matchmaker, The Price, Bus Stop, cle, Back Stage West Garland, Arizona Boston Symphony, Sinfa Nova and The Imaginary Invalid, The Skin of Theatre and the Bay Area Theatre the National Radio Orchestra of Swe- Our Teeth, The Misanthrope, Cyrano Critics Circle Awards. In the dance den. His compositions have been de Bergerac, Another Part of the For- world he has designed and toured featured at such prestigious interna- est (Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle throughout Eastern Europe and the tional festivals as the Mitsui Festival Award and Garland Award), Little United States. As an architectural (Tokyo), the Perugia Festival (Italy), Foxes (Garland Award), The Seagull, lighting designer, he has designed the Biennale Festival (Venice), Teatro A Winter’s Tale, The Threepenny lighting for numerous themed envi- Espanol (Spain), the Next Wave Festi- Opera (Drama-Logue Award) and ronment, theme park and museum val (New York), the Castle Hill Festi- Twelfth Night (Drama-Logue Award). projects all over the world including val (Essex) and the San Sebastian Fes- Ms. Calin has designed over 50 pro- the Sony Metreon Sendak Playspace tival (Spain). Theatre and ballet ductions for local theatres and in her (2000 I.E.S. Award) in San Francisco; music includes scores for the Ameri- native Romania. Some of those pro- Warner Bros. Movie World in Madrid; can Repertory Theatre (King Stag co- ductions are: A Midsummer Night’s Le Centre de Loisirs in Morocco; and composed with Elliot Goldenthal, Dream at The Hollywood Bowl, The The LEGO Racers 4D attraction in Jacques and His Master and The Winter’s Tale at The Old Globe, The Germany, Denmark, England and the Changeling); the Brooklyn Academy Last of Mr. Lincoln at El Portal, Dia- U.S.A. His current projects include of Music (Power Project with Bob blogues at the Tiffany Theatre, The For Better Or Worse at Arizona The- Berky); the Seattle Repertory (A Flaw Sunshine Boys and Harvey for La Mi- atre Company and Berkeley Reperto- in the Ointment); Center Stage (In a rada Center for the Performing Arts, ry Theatre; Noises Off for Seattle Pigs Valise); Odyssey Theatre (Imper-

The Retreat from Moscow •SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P7 ceptible Musabilities, Goose Amid the the world premiere of But Not for Me he restaged for the Singapore Festival Revolt); the Arizona Theatre Company and the Pacific Playwrights Festival of Arts. His producing responsibili- (The Old Matador); the Colorado workshop production of Landlocked. ties involve the overall coordination Shakespeare Festival (As You Like It, He also was stage manager of La of SCR’s programs and projects. He A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Win- Posada Mágica for two seasons and has several as a theatre panelist and ter’s Tale); the Pan Asian Repertory SCR’s Festival Latino ’97 production onsite evaluator for the National En- Theatre, New York; the Mark Taper of Rick Najera’s Latinologues. He has dowment for the Arts, on the Execu- Forum (Death and the Maiden, Sky- worked as assistant stage manager on tive Committee of the League of Resi- light, Weights, The Poison Tree, Clos- the Mainstage productions of New dent Theatres, and as a panelist for er, 10 Unknowns directed by Robert England, Our Town and Arcadia, the California Arts Council. After at- Egan, Bandido! directed by Jose Luis and the Second Stage productions of tending Orange Coast College, he re- Valenzuela, Hysteria directed by BAFO and Three Days of Rain. Mr. ceived his BA and MA from California Phyllida Lloyd, Enigma Variations di- Tucker has worked at the Long State University, San Francisco, and rected by Daniel Roussel and The Beach Civic Light Opera on No, No, his PhD in theatre and film from USC. Molière Comedies directed by Brian Nanette, Can Can, A Chorus Line, The Bedford); and the Ahmanson Theatre King and I and Man of La Mancha. PAULA TOMEI (Managing Director) is (Midsummer Night’s Dream, Measure If you can’t find him in the theatre, responsible for the overall administra- for Measure and Romeo and Juliet di- he is likely to be on the diamond. tion of South Coast Repertory and has rected by Sir Peter Hall). Film and been Managing Director since 1994. television scores include works for DAVID EMMES (Producing Artistic A member of the SCR staff since PBS, Chal Productions (Al Pacino, Director) is co-founder of SCR. He 1979, she has served in a number of New York), The American Film Insti- has received numerous awards for administrative capacities including tute, NRK Norwegian State Television, productions he has directed during Subscriptions Manager, Business Imagine Films Entertainment, SCR’s 40-year history, including a Manager and General Manager. She CBS/Sony Television, Japan, 1999 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle currently serves as President of the Paramount Pictures and United Award for the direction of George Theatre Communications Group Paramount Network. He is composer Bernard Shaw’s The Philanderer. He (TCG), the national service organiza- in residence at Mark Taper Forum directed the world premieres of Amy tion for the professional not-for-profit and served as musical director for the Freed’s Safe in Hell, The Beard of theatre. In addition, she has served Shakespeare repertory directed by Sir Avon and Freedomland, Thomas as Treasurer of TCG, Vice President Peter Hall at the Ahmanson Theatre. Babe’s Great Day in the Morning, of the League of Resident Theatres Keith Reddin’s Rum and Coke and (LORT) and has been a member of *JAMIE A. TUCKER (Stage Manager) But Not for Me and Neal Bell’s Cold the LORT Negotiating Committee for completed his MFA in Dance, special- Sweat; the American premiere of industry-wide union agreements. She izing in Stage Management, at UCI in Terry Johnson’s Unsuitable for Adults; represents SCR at national confer- 1994. Last season he stage managed the West Coast premieres of C.P. Tay- ences of TCG and LORT; is a theatre Anna in the Tropics, Lovers and Exe- lor’s Good and Harry Kondoleon’s panelist and site visitor for the Na- cutioners, Intimate Exchanges and Christmas on Mars; and the South- tional Endowment for the Arts and Mr. Marmalade and previously stage land premiere of Top Girls (at SCR the California Arts Council; served on managed the world premiere of and the Westwood Playhouse). the Advisory Committee for the Arts Richard Greenberg’s The Violet Hour, Other productions include the West Administration Certificate Program at the West Coast premiere of Horton Coast premieres of Three Viewings by the University of California, Irvine; Foote’s The Carpetbagger’s Children, Jeffrey Hatcher, The Secret Rapture by and has been a guest lecturer in the Relatively Speaking and the world David Hare and New England by graduate school of business at Stan- premiere of Rolin Jones’ The Intelli- Richard Nelson; and Arcadia by Tom ford. She graduated from the Univer- gent Design of Jenny Chow. He Stoppard, The Importance of Being sity of California, Irvine with a degree worked as SCR’s stage manager for Earnest by Oscar Wilde, Ayckbourn’s in Economics and pursued an addi- the Second Stage productions of The Woman in Mind and You Never Can tional course of study in theatre and Dazzle, True West, Play Strindberg, Tell by George Bernard Shaw, which dance.

The Actors and Stage Managers em- The Scenic, Costume, Lighting and The Director is a member of the Soci- ployed in this production are members Sound Designers in LORT theatres ety of Stage Directors and Choreogra- of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union are represented by United Scenic phers, Inc., an independent national of Professional Actors and Stage Man- Artists Local USA-829, IATSE. labor union. agers in the United States.

P8 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • The Retreat from Moscow