The Absence of a Cello by the Bowie Community Theatre at the Bowie Playhouse, Jul 21-Aug 13

The Absence of a Cello
by Ira Wallach
directed by Ilene Chalmers

July 21 – August 13, 2023
Fridays and Saturdays at 8PM, Sunday matinees at 2PM

Location: Bowie Community Theatre at the Bowie Playhouse

How far would you be willing to go to get the perfect job? Could you sacrifice your entire personality to fit into the ‘Corporate Image’ if it meant bringing home a sweet paycheck? The Absence of a Cello brings us to 1960’s New York, to the Manhattan apartment of Andrew and Celia Pilgrim, as they attempt to answer these questions for themselves in this smartly written comedy with wonderfully quirky characters!

As Martin Gottfried describes: “It is about a physicist who needs money so badly he turns to the $60,000-a-year job offered by a big corporation. He wants the job, but does the company want him? Mr. Personnel is sent to find out. What seems to be starting out as a shopworn target—individuality versus conformity—turns out to be an ingeniously conceived comical discussion of honesty and truth. After being coached by a gray-flanneled collegiate on how to be what every company wants, the scientist is prepared to confront the enemy (after quickly trading in his rolled-up trousers and flapping shirt for a neat brown suit)…He hides the cello he plays with pick-up quartets, he hides the medieval history books his wife writes, he hides all but the acceptable three liquor bottles. He hides, in fact, everything that he and his wife are. And hauls out the television set…What follows is a literately comical playaround with industrial conformity that for sheer humor is, well, wonderfully adult.”

General Admission – $25.00, Seniors (62+) & Students – $20.00.

Buy tickets on-line.