Denison Theatre: 'Big Love'

Denison University’s Department of Theatre presents “Big Love” by Charles L. Mee at the Ace Morgan Theatre (211 West College Street). Performances will take place at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 5, to Saturday, Oct. 7, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 8. The play will continue the following week with performances at 8 p.m. from Tuesday, Oct. 10, to Thursday, Oct. 12. Tickets are $8 or $5 for seniors and $4 for students. Reservations may be made by calling 740-587-6544.

Fifty Grecian brides have sailed into an Italian harbor, looking for sanctuary and escape from the arranged marriages to 50 grooms, who are in hot pursuit. One of these beleaguered women presents the problem and supplies the solution: “What else can you do if your father won’t protect you, your country won’t defend you, you flee to another country, and no one there will take care of you. What is left? Nothing except to take care of yourself.”

The play is directed by Eleni Papaleonardos, visiting assistant professor of theatre. “This play deals, in a fantastical way,” she says, “with very real and very difficult issues in the world: what does it mean to be a man? A woman? A displaced person? What does it mean to have compassion? How do you take care of others while looking out for your own? These problems never exist in a vacuum, and so, the play addresses them as they exist in life—interconnected, problematic, and very, very messy.”