'Pierre' Examines The Motives Of Herman Melville

On Saturday, August 6, at 7 p.m., The Church in Sag Harbor will host a one-night only reading of “Pierre,” a play written by acclaimed writer Keith Reddin, directed by Tony Award winner Doug Hughes and produced by Stop The Wind Theatricals, a new production company, that officially launches with the workshop reading.

“Pierre,” Reddin’s most recent play, is a dark comedy about the life of Herman Melville featuring a Marxist-Leninist book club in Helena Montana, fanatical rare book collectors, deep family secrets, and murder. An epic ride of obsession and love, “Pierre” examines what it means to be an artist in America.

“While isolating in Sag Harbor during the pandemic, I picked up a used copy of a biography of Herman Melville,” Reddin explains. “As I read it, I felt a deep connection with his writing, his passions, his sorrows and the challenges of growing older as a creative person. ‘Pierre,’ the play, grew out of Melville’s strange, haunting novel of the same name, as well my love of the written word. I wrote it to explore Melville’s boundless curiosity and brilliant poetic imagination. As well as some jokes thrown in.”

Carol Ostrow, President of Stop The Wind Theatricals, and a longtime resident of Sag Harbor said the pandemic provided crucial context for the play.

“I learned that Keith was using this dark time to turn inward and he focused his attention on Herman Melville, an iconic author with strong ties to our village,” she said. “After seeing his first draft, I knew we had a play that deserved to start its theatrical life in Sag Harbor. And what better place than The Church, which already claims Melville as one of its own?”

Herman Melville is one of 20 Sag Harbor artist-saints whose portraits line the windows of The Church in a series conceived by artist and The Church co-founder Eric Fischl.

Hughes was eager to join the project as soon as he read the script. “I’ve been a fan of Keith Reddin’s for decades,” Hughes said. “It’s a great privilege to finally get to work with him on this exhilarating play. Mysterious, outrageous, wonderfully funny, and finally very moving, ‘Pierre’ is the work of a writer operating with great freedom and utter command.”

The play’s cast includes Chukwudi Iwuji as Melville, Meg Gibson as Elizabeth Melville, as well as David Aaron Baker, Mayaa Boateng, Raquel Chavez, Robert Joy, Nadine Malouf, Max Gordon Moore, Alexandra Neil and Henry Stram and two young performers from the South Fork Performing Arts Center.

Tickets to “Pierre” are $40. For more information, visit thechurchsagharbor.org. The Church is at 48 Madison Street in Sag Harbor.