Rumors
by City Theatre Company
Sep. 29 - Oct. 23, 2011
Chris and Ken Gorman arrive at a fancy dinner party for their friend, Charley Brock. They discover that all is not well, and that Charley has had an accident involving a shotgun and his earlobe. This could be damaging to Charley’s reputation, as he is deputy mayor of New York City. Chris and Ken’s friends begin to arrive. As they attempt to cover up the facts, hilarity ensues. Neil Simon’s Rumors is a charming farce with lots of gags, twists, zingers, and zanies, but it also borrows from Simon’s life experience to depict the challenges, as well as the comforts, of married life.
-- Summary via StageAgent.com
In an interview, Simon said: " 'I was going through some difficult times...I wanted to work, because work is always a cathartic process for me, and I thought it would be really good just to get into a comedy.' "[5]
He noted that " 'This is completely different for me...It's unlike anything I've ever written. It's my first farce.' " In describing the play, he said: " 'The play started with the idea of doing a farce...The next thing was to do it as an elegant farce, because the farces in Moliere's days were generally about wealthy people. These aren't extremely wealthy people, but they are well-to-do. So I decided to dress them in evening clothes. There was something about having them dressed in evening clothes that I thought was a nice counterpoint to the chaos that was happening in the play. And so I picked a reason for them to be dressed elegantly, and it was a 10th anniversary.' "[5]
Rumors
by Neil Simon
City Theatre Company
