Supporting the Arts in Western Massachusetts and Beyond

March 14, 2018

PREVIEW: Hartford Stage, “The Age of Innocence”


Hartford Stage, Hartford, CT

One of author Edith Wharton’s most regarded novels, “The Age of Innocence,” comes to Hartford Stage. Douglas McGrath adapted the story into a play about what was called “The Gilded Age of the 1870s.”

New York City society at its most cultivated, wealthy and rigid was an elite class of people who dreaded scandal more than disease. In her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Wharton introduces the courtly young gentleman lawyer Newland Archer; his traditional and demure fiancée May; and the free-spirited Countess Olenska, who has come home from Europe, tainted by scandal. From the moment Newland meets the Countess, he is torn between virtue and desire, and all three are forced to make the agonizing choice, ever old and ever new, between love and honor.

For details and ticket information check the Hartford Stage website at www.hartfordstage.org