SOUTH PORTLAND — Mad Horse Theatre Company’s exciting play-reading series “By Local” will continue Feb. 6-9, with two new plays by Maine playwrights.
“Sin Don’t Enter Into It” by Cullen McGough, directed by Christine Louise Marshall, will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 6, and Saturday, Feb. 8.
“Ghosts of Ocean House” by Michael Kimball, directed by Kat Moraros, will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 7, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 9.
McGough’s “Sin Don’t Enter Into It” takes place in 1936 when Owensboro, Kentucky was rocked by the brutal murder of Lischia Edwards by a young illiterate black man, Rainey Bathea. Despite confessing to the murder, what happened to Rainey next sparked one of the strangest trials in American history.
Caught up in election-year politics, the young man found himself accused of rape by a prosecutor eager to exploit a loophole in Kentucky law. If convicted of rape instead of murder, Rainey would face a blood-thirsty mob at a public hanging rather than a private execution.
Hampered with a divided defense team, damning evidence and no chance of acquittal, Rainey was presented with a terrible choice: confess to a rape he didn’t commit and hang, or confess to murder and become one of the first men to sit in the newly-invented electric chair.
Kimball’s “Ghosts of Ocean House” concerns estranged remnants of a once aristocratic New England family, who must spend one week for each of 10 years living together harmoniously – or else lose the house to charity. This is their final week. But the newest family member, a flighty, fragile young bride named Darlene, harbors a dark, mysterious past – as does the quiet old house – and when they come together, ghosts begin awakening.
McGough is a playwright from Portland, Maine. His work has been performed at the Maine Playwright’s Festival, the D.C. Source Festival, the Freeport Players theater, the N.H. Player’s Ring and the King of Crows Theatre festival.
Kimball is a playwright, novelist, and screenwriter who teaches popular fiction and scriptwriting at Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing program at the University of Southern Maine.
All performances are held at the Mad Horse Theater in the Hutchins School, 24 Mosher Street.
Tickets are available at the door, Pay-What-You-Can (suggested $10 donation), cash and check only.
For more information, visit www.madhorse.com or call 207-747-4148.
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