A runaway wife consoles her abusive husband in Holy Ghosts at Beck Center through October 21 (photo courtesy Stephen Campanella)
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Beck Center for the Arts presents Holy Ghosts, a dark comedy by award-winning playwright, Romulus Linney, in the Studio Theater September 28 – October 21, 2007. Directed by Matthew Wright, Holy Ghosts tells the story of an abusive husband, a runaway wife and a Southern Pentecostal sect whose members speak in tongues and practice snake handling as the ultimate test of their faith. A young woman struggles to escape her mistake-of-a-marriage to a broken and thoughtless man. She runs away seeking refuge amongst the members of a fundamentalist religious group in the rural South.

The play questions the true meaning of faith as the husband, looking to retrieve his runaway wife by force, is – much to his own amazement – converted to a true believer. “Holy Ghosts examines universal questions that arise out of the human condition.” said director Matthew Wright “…and, like the human condition, the play is extraordinarily funny, heartbreaking, ugly, beautiful, tragic, joyous, and always changing.” Holy Ghosts features talented area actors Nicholas Koesters* as the hard-drinking husband, Coleman Shedman and Neil Thackaberry* as the newly ordained “husband,” the Reverend Obediah Buckhorn, Sr.

The cast includes a mix of colorful characters including a former Sunday school teacher who has been “fired” by her Methodist employer after 37 years, a penniless couple with an unwanted new baby and a “cancer man” who tries to deny his physical illness. “This play is a great and joyous challenge for the actors, the director and the audience.” Wright further commented, “In these difficult times when faith is hard to sustain, this play reminds us what it means to be fully alive; it’s a true celebration of the human spirit.”

Holy Ghosts is sponsored by COX Communications, FreeTimes and WCPN 90.3 ideastream. Show times are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays. Admission is $28 for adults, $25 for seniors, and $17 for students (22 and under). Special group rates are available for groups of 13 or more. Rush tickets for students (22 and under with I.D.) are offered for $10 each on Sundays only, 30 minutes prior to curtain, based on availability. To reserve tickets call the Beck Center box office at 216-521-2540 or online at www.beckcenter.org. Convenient on-site parking is free.

Beck Center is located just ten minutes west of downtown Cleveland at 17801 Detroit Avenue in Lakewood. Programming at Beck Center for the Arts is made possible through the generous support of The Cleveland Foundation, the George Gund Foundation, the John P. Murphy Foundation, the Kulas Foundation, the Eva L. & Joseph M. Bruening Foundation, the Abington Foundation, the Thomas H. White Foundation, and the Ohio Arts Council. *Actor appears courtesy of the Actors Equity Association, the union of actors and stage managers.