Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday at 7pmFriday-Saturday at 8pm & Saturday-Sunday at 2pm

How to purchase your tickets for THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL

• By Mail or In-Person: Mint Theater Company(No Service Charges) 311 West 43rd Street, Ste. #307

New York, NY 10036

• By Phone: (212) 315-0231 ($2.50 per ticket service charge will apply)

• By Fax: (212) 977-5211 (No Service Charges)

• On-line: www.minttheater.org (No Service Charges)

• Call for special group rates (groups of 15 or more)

Date Time # of Tkts. Price Total

1st Choice

2nd Choice

3rd Choice TOTAL =

$35 FOR PERFORMANCES MAY 23 – MAY 27$45 FOR PERFORMANCES MAY 29 – JUNE 10$55 FOR PERFORMANCES JUNE 12 – JULY 8

I am also including a tax-deductible contribution

x =

+

BOX OFFICEHOURS

Now thru May 18Monday - Friday

12-6 pm

Beginning May 22Monday - Saturday

12 - 6 pmSunday 12 - 3 pm

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❍ Enclosed is my check made payable to

Mint Theater Company❍ Please charge my Visa, MC or Amex

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$35 May 23 – May 27$45 May 23 – June 10 $55 June 12 – July 8$25 (I will bring photo ID when I pick up my tickets)

SETS & COSTUMES CLINT RAMOS

LIGHTS TYLER MICOLEAU

SOUND JANE SHAW

ASSOCIATE SET DESIGNER CRAIG NAPOLIELLO

CASTING STUART HOWARD,

AMY SCHECTER & PAUL HARDT

PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER KIMOTHY CRUSE

PRESS REPRESENTATIVE DAVID GERSTEN & ASSOCIATES

GRAPHICS JUDE DVORAK

All tickets are HELD at the Box Office. NO LATE SEATING! *All sales are final. There are no exchanges or refunds.

TO ORDER TICKETS CALL

(212) 315-0231

OR VISIT OUR ON-LINE BOX OFFICE: WWW.MINTTHEATER.ORG

PERFORMANCES AT MINT THEATER 311 WEST 43RD STREET, 3RD FLOOR

✃

Anyone under 25 can now order $25 tickets in advance—over the phone, online or in person!

(Limit one ticket per ID. Proof of age will be required when you pick up your tickets)

$25 forunder 25!

BY: ST. JOHN HANKIN

DIRECTOR: JONATHAN BANK

WITH:

BRADFORD COVER

TANDY CRONYN

LEAH CURNEY

ROBIN HAYNES

RODERICK HILL

RICHARD KLINE

KATE LEVY

W. ALAN NEBELTHAU

CECELIA RIDDETT

MARGOT WHITE

JO NAT H A N BA N K

ART I S T I C DI R E C TO R

SH E R R I KOT I M S K Y

GE N E R A L MA NAG E R

LIMITED ENGAGEMENT!

PERFORMANCES BEGIN MAY 23RD

TUES., WED., THURS. AT 7:00

FRI. & SAT. AT 8:00

SAT. & SUN. AT 2:00

PAINTING BY CHARLIE MACKESY

“BLUE PRODIGAL” (2000)

WWW.CHARLIEMACKESY.COM

SUNDAY, MAY 27TH following the matinee

PROFESSOR MARTIN MEISEL, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

A discussion of THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL with Martin Meisel, the Brander

Matthews Professor of Dramatic Literature Emeritus from Columbia University.

SATURDAY, JUNE 2ND following the matinee

PROFESSOR J. ELLEN GAINOR, CORNELL UNIVERSITY

A discussion of Hankin: his life, his plays and his contemporaries with one

of our very favorite post-show speakers.

SUNDAY, JUNE 3RD following the matinee

DR. PAULA J. CLAYTON FROM THE AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR SUICIDE PREVENTION

St. John Hankin took his own life at the age of 40. We’ll discuss his suicide

in the light of what he wrote on the topic in PRODIGAL and his other works.

Clayton is the Medical Director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

SATURDAY, JUNE 9TH following the matinee

PROFESSOR PATRICIA DENISON, BARNARD COLLEGE

A discussion of Hankin and his contemporaries with Patricia Denison,

Professor of Dramatic Literature at Barnard. She is currently finishing a book on

Arthur W. Pinero and late-nineteenth century British drama.

SUNDAY, JUNE 10TH following the matinee

PROFESSOR GERALD WEALES, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANNIA

Weales is the editor of the anthology: “Edwardian Plays,” which contains

both RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL and THE MADRAS HOUSE.

Discussions last approximately

50 minutes and are open to the public

free of charge.

Post-show discussion performances sell out first.

Call 212-315-0231 for more information

or to book your seats.

COMING TO THE MINT IN SEPTEMBER:

THE POWER OF DARKNESSby Leo Tolstoy

“THE POWER OF DARKNESS rendsthe air with greatness.” -The Spectator, 1984

This play was written in 1886 but was banned in Russia where it was not produced until 1895—after Tolstoy satisfiedthe censor and agreed to provide an alternative for the play’smost powerful and horrific scene. The play is virtually unknown in this country; its first New York production was in Yiddish

(in 1904). It was another 16 years before the fledgling Theater Guild finally presented the play in English.

The last time THE POWER OF DARKNESS was seen in New York was in 1959 when Brooks Atkinson called theplay “unforgettable…a devastating chronicle of corruption

and penitence on a peasant farm in the 1880’s.”

FIRST PRIORITY CLUB MEMBERS ONLY:Order your tickets today! 212-315-0231

Performances September 5th thru October 21st.For more information about joining theFirst-Priority Club call 212-315-0231.

Mint Theater Company is the proud recipientof a $100,000 grant from the Tony RandallTheatrical Fund to support the production

of this forgotten play by one of the world’sgreatest writers.

Mint was chosen from among 45 candidates by a selectioncommittee including Jed Bernstein, Steve Buscemi,

Charles Busch, Michael Cerveris, Cherry Jones, Jack Klugman,Michael Mastro, Marian Seldes, Gary Springer, Ben Vereen.

NON-PROFIT ORG.

U.S. POSTAGE

PAIDNew York, NY

Permit No. 7528

“St. John Hankin is one of the great might-have-beens of the British theatre.” - Sunday Times

Five-years ago Mint Theater introduced NewYork audiences to an extraordinary Britishplaywright named St. John Hankin. Hankinwrote five full-length plays between 1903and his death by suicide at the age of 40 in1909. Only one of them has ever been seenin New York—THE CHARITY THATBEGAN AT HOME—produced by the Mintin 2002 (“Layered and surprisingly rich” TheNew York Times).

“Like Granville Barker at his best, Hankinwrote adult plays for adult people,” writesthe Financial Times. Hankin, along withGranville Barker and Shaw, helped furtherthe revolution that returned the function ofsocial criticism to drama. Granville Barkerdedicated his first published volume of playsin 1909 “To the memory of my fellow-worker,St. John Hankin.”

The Guardian calls Hankin, “the forgottenman of Edwardian drama,” and describesTHE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL as “adelightful discovery…This is social comedywith a sharp tooth: a riveting critique of thephilosophy of survival of the fittest.”

THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL is a“blistering expose of middle-class life, lacedwith acid humor.” The prodigal of the title isEustace Jackson, the son of a wealthy manu-facturer. Five years earlier Eustace waspacked off to Australia to make his fortune,but he only succeeds at failing in everythinghe attempts. Desperate and destitute, hereturns home uninvited to the bosom of hisfamily who had so fondly hoped they wererid of him for good. The resulting collisionis “both hilarious and uncomfortable,”culminating in “a final act of anguish andconfrontation which is genuinely gripping.”

“Written in varying shades of grey, the piececombines devastating criticism of the rich(whether idle or industrious) with a bleaklydeterminist view of human character. Moreto the point, it uses social argument as

material for wonderfully fertile comic inven-tion, in which ironic plotting is reinforcedwith paralysingly funny one-liners.”

In 2001 the Shaw Festival in Canada producedTHE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL and itbecame the surprise hit of the season and wasrevived the following year. (This summerShaw Festival will be producing Hankin’splay THE CASSILAS ENGAGEMENT.)The Orange Tree in London also revivedPRODIGAL in 1993. Hankin’s writing wascelebrated for its “insightful construction,and dazzling delineation of character.”“What a joy to discover” the criticsexclaimed, while extolling Hankin’s comicgifts; the “crisp, at times almost OscarWildean dialogue,” and “the twinkle of life inthe dialogue.” But Hankin is a complexcomedian; his sometimes cynical voice,“seems so modern and insightful.” Hankin’sis “the voice of the ruthless observer and truesubversive.” “We leave the theater disquietedby what we’ve seen. And isn’t that whatgood theater is all about?”

St. John Hankin was a writer truly ahead ofhis time. When The Dramatic Works of St.John Hankin was published in 1912, TheNew York Times wrote that, “His influence isnot to be measured by the fact that theLondon stage has apparently found no usefor him.…To have let a little light and airinto the English theater at a time when thewindows had for years been shut, and theblinds drawn was no mean accomplishment.”

St. John Hankin (1869-1909)

St. John Hankin began to contr ibutehumorous essays and dramatic parodiesincluding new “last-acts” for well-knownplays to Punch magazine 1898. In 1901 someof his contributions were anthologized asMr. Punch’s Dramatic Sequels. Hankin alsocontributed about seventy drama reviews toThe London Times before beginning hiscareer as a playwright in 1903 with THETWO MR. WETHERBY’S. Hankin wasactively involved in running the StageSociety, a London theater group thatsupported plays of literary merit, foundedin part, to avoid the Lord Chamberlain’scensorship.

Hankin was the only living dramatist otherthan Shaw to have more than one full-lengthplay produced at the Royal Court during theimportant Vedrenne-Barker years from 1904to 1907. Granville Barker produced thepremieres of both THE RETURN OF THEPRODIGAL and THE CHARITY THATBEGAN AT HOME.

During Hankin’s youth his father suffered anervous breakdown, which left him aninvalid. Hankin himself began to suffer fromincreasing ill health in 1907 and he wasplagued with the fear that he would suffer thesame fate as his father. On a “dull, sultry,wet” day in June of 1909, St. John Hankintied two seven-pound dumbbells around hisneck and drowned himself in the river Ithon.He left his wife a letter expressing his fearthat he would “slip into invalidism,” whichhe could not bear and ended by telling her, “Ihave found a lovely pool in a river and at thebottom I hope to find rest.” George BernardShaw described his death as “a publiccalamity.”

311 W. 43rd Street

Suite #307

New York, NY 10036

www.minttheater.org

BY: ST. JOHN HANKIN

THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL is a “blisteringexpose of middle-class life, laced with acid humor.” The prodigal of the title is Eustace Jackson, the son of a wealthy manufacturer. Five years earlier Eustace was packed off to Australia to make his fortune, but he only succeeds at failing in everything he attempts.Desperate and destitute, he returns home uninvited to the bosom of his family who had so fondly hoped they were rid of him for good.

“LIKE GRANVILLE BARKERAT HIS BEST, HANKINWROTE ADULT PLAYSFOR ADULT PEOPLE.”

-Financial Times.

“ST. JOHN HANKIN IS ONE OF THEGREAT MIGHT-HAVE-BEENS OF THEBRITISH THEATRE.” -Sunday Times

MINT THEATER COMPANY: LOST PLAYS FOUND HEREThe award-winning Mint has brought you lost treasures such as:The Madras House, Susan and God, The Daughter-in-Law, and Echoes of the War.

BY: ST. JOHN HANKIN

“Picture a play called

THE IMPORTANCE

OF BEING VANYA

and you’ll get the

general idea.”

“THEVOICEOFTHERUTHLESS

OBSERVERANDTRUESUBVERSIVE…

LACEDWITHACID-HUMOR.”-Sunday Times

Discounted Preview Performances:

March 23rd thru June 10th.

BY: ST. JOHNHANKIN