N (Bonaparte) by Laura Harrington  

“…I don’t know why but the little bastard scares me.” A new play by Laura Harrington Ko Festival performances July 2006

"...madness and genius, war and peace, prison and freedom, imagination and dread, legacy and legend. It is a work for our time..."

A tragicomedy about Napoleon in his final exile on the island of St. Helena. Guarded by 5,000 British Soldiers, surrounded by sycophants, toadies, an unforgiving sea, and plagued by rats, the Little Emperor travels back and forth in time as he confronts his legacy and crafts his future legend.

Award-winning Massachusetts playwright, Laura Harrington, collaborates with Pilgrim Theatre on a new, visionary work for theatre about Napoleon.

About the Production

The world according to Napoleon Bonaparte*: Build an empire that is only one step from the "sublime to the ridiculous." Pursue world domination knowing that "in politics stupidity is not a handicap." Manipulate the truth and the press because "history is a set of lies agreed upon" anyway. Carefully craft a legacy that is bound to inspire every warrior wannabe in the future. [*And yes, he did say these things.]

If NB can do it, why not say a GWB? Or a WXYZ? Plenty to aspire to. Relive the fall from Paris to St Helena's, from fame to obscurity. Rise from parvenu pretender to torchbearer for the Revolution. Build that Empire. Fight that battle. Accomplish that mission. Prove your political and military genius by way of death and then resurrection.

N (Bonaparte) is absurdly tragicomic indeed, following the immortal emperor as he journeys back into the past and then into a future where some are bound and determined to carry on his legacy. The image-rich, poetic writing of Laura Harrington (Hallowed Ground, Martin Guerre, Marathon Dancing) is perfectly matched by Boston's Pilgrim Theatre's signature style of physical and aural collage.

N (Bonaparte) is a phantasmagorical work for theatre centered on the figure of Napoleon in his final years of exile on the island of St. Helena. Guarded by 2,000 British soldiers, surrounded by sycophants, toadies and an unforgiving sea, and plagued by rats, the Little Emperor confronts his legacy and crafts his future legend. This passionate new work for theatre is poised at the intersection of madness and genius, war and peace, prison and freedom, imagination and dread, legacy and legend. It is a work for our time ...

About the Author

Laura Harrington's plays, musicals, operas, and radio plays have been widely produced in America and abroad. She has worked with theatre greats such as Anne Bogart and Mark Lamos, and has collaborated with composers across the country. Much of her work is inspired by her fascination with history and her commitment to work that explores the human cost of war, from the Civil War to WW I to the Battle of Midway. She has indulged in a lifelong love affair with all things French, and, in particular, French history, from Martin Guerre to Joan of Arc, to her most recent work about Napoleon in exile. Why Napoleon? "The idea of Napoleon, the most famous human on the planet in 1815, brought low and plagued by rats on St Helena, was really too delicious and too full of comic potential to pass up. Here is the hubris of empire in all its tattered, faded glory." Todd London, artistic director of New Dramatists and former Managing Editor of American Theatre magazine, has praised N (Bonaparte) as "brilliantly theatrical, full of life and death and shockingly relevant." Harrington recently received a Massachusetts Cultural Council award for individual playwrights.

.    .    .

Pilgrim Theatre presented work in process performances in June 2005 and premiered at the BCA Plaza Theatre in September 2005. After July 2006 performances at Ko Festival, N (Bonaparte) will tour to La Mama ETC in New York City in October 2006.

.    .    .

Supported in part by:

LEF Foundation

MIT

Harvard University

Pilgrim Theatre Research and Performance Collaborative is a Resident Company at the Boston Center for the Arts