"The Spiritualist"

The IceHouse June 3 through June 19.

Crowded Kitchen Players premiers its new melodrama, “The Spiritualist” June 3 through June 19 at The Charles A. Brown IceHouse in Bethlehem, PA.

"The Spiritualist" is set in London near the end of The Great War and the beginning of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 which together killed more than 70 million people world-wide.

“The Spiritualist” recounts the harrowing tale of Col. Sebastian Lloyd, a retired military officer on a desperate quest to make contact with his wife and three small children who succumbed to the ravages of the disease while he was off fighting in the trenches on the Belgian front.

Unable to accept his survival in bloody battle while his family fell helplessly to the relentless virus at home, Sebastian (David Oswald) enlists the aid of his widowed sister-in-law, Gwendoline, to learn if the renowned Spiritualist, Madam Tasaya, can help reunite the living and the dead.

However, Gwendoline (Trish Cipoletti) is a respected scientist who, while deeply in love with Sebastian, is nonetheless unshakably skeptical of Tasaya’s purported gifts to communicate with the departed.

When, one stormy night in London, Tasaya (Sharon Ferry) masterfully mesmerizes a gathering of supplicants with her remarkable knowledge of closely held secrets that could only indicate she is truly in contact with those beyond the grave, Gwendoline is determined to protect Sebastian from what she is certain is mere sleight-of-hand and side-show trickery.

But, when Sebastian quickly becomes convinced that Tasaya is indeed speaking with his dead wife, Gwendoline mounts a fierce and protracted battle of the mind and spirit to try to dissuade him and to debunk Tasaya’s claims.

With immediate and tragic consequences beyond anything she could have imagined!

“The Spiritualist” also features Michael Sheridan, Pamela Wallace, Bruce Brown, Brian Wendt, Jerry Brucker, Dawn Daignault, Donald M. Swan, Colleen Popper, and Sandy Repash.

The play was written by Ara Barlieb.

Performances are June 3, 4, 10, 11, 17 @ 800PM, and June 5, 12, 19 @ 200PM.

All tickets are $19.

Masking and vaccination are highly recommended but not required at this time.

For additional information, please visit www.ckplayers.com or call 610-704-6974.