The Hampton Theatre Company will open its 40th season next Thursday at the Quogue Community Hall with Sean Grennan’s comedy/drama “Now and Then.” The production will be the company’s 133rd since its founding in 1984.
Premiered in 2018 at the Peninsula Players Theatre in Wisconsin, “Now and Then” is about the costs of the life choices we make as well as the people who make them with us. It opens in a neighborhood bar in 1981, as Jamie, a young bartender and aspiring musician, is closing up for the night.
A last-minute customer rushes in and offers Jamie and his girlfriend, Abby, a lucrative payday just to share a drink. As the three share stories, Jamie begins to reconsider the decisions he has made about his musical career and his future with Abby.
The young couple begin to realize the older man is unusually invested in their choices, and the reason he gives seems incredible. But when another stranger, a visibly disgruntled woman, arrives, the unbelievable begins to look as if it might be true.
The Miami Herald, in a review wary of spoilers, said “Grennan’s play keeps you hooked from start to finish,” while The Biscayne Times said, “This is a play of soul-searching and self-discovery, but before we get too deep, it’s also very funny.”
An actor as well as a writer, Mr. Grennan has appeared onscreen in “The Untouchables” and “Rudy” and on TV in “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “The Human Factor,” and “Unsolved Mysteries.”
His stage works include “A Rock Sails By,” “As Long As We Both Shall Live,” “Beer for Breakfast,” “A Dog’s Life,” “Making God Laugh,” and “The Tin Woman.” His play “Luck!” won an honorable mention from the National Writers Association’s Playwrighting Festival and was produced by the Epic Theatre Ensemble in New York City.
The cast of “Now and Then” includes Kate Brady as Abby, Stephanie L. Moreau as The Woman, Dayne Rasmussen as Jamie, and John L. Payne as The Man. Mary Powers is the director. Set design and sound design are by Meg Sexton; lighting design by Sebastian Paczynski, and costumes by Teresa Lebrun.
The play will run from next Thursday through Nov. 3, on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7 p.m., and Sundays at 2:30. An additional matinee performance will happen on Nov. 2 at 2:30, before the regular 7 p.m. show that evening. Conversations with the cast will follow the Oct. 25 and Nov. 1 performances.
Tickets are $40 for adults, $36 for senior citizens, $25 for students (25 and under), and $30 for veterans and Native Americans. Season tickets, good for “Now and Then,” “Boeing Boeing” (March 13 through 30), and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (May 22 through June 8), are available on the theater’s website.
