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You’ve waited long enough so do not miss Frederick Stuart’s dynamic and thoroughly mesmerizing performance as Sydney Carton in Tony-winner Mike Poulton’s adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens at A Noise Within.
Directed masterfully with a keen eye towards our current political climate by Julia Rodriguez-Elliott and Geoff Elliott, ANW takes us on a journey through the streets of Paris and London during the French Revolution where a complex story of love, honor and freedom unfolds.
We meet British aristocrat, Dr. Manette, who, after being released from an 18 year prison sentence in Paris, has built a new life with the daughter he’s never met, Lucie. When Dr. Manette was ill and in desperate need of help, the mysterious Frenchman, Charles Darnay, came to his aide. Darnay too has come to London to have a new life away from a past he is ashamed of. But when his true identity is discovered and he is accused of treason, his life becomes entwined with that of a drunken barrister, Sydney Carton, due to their uncanny resemblance. Both men fall in love with Lucie but the hysteria of revolution brings a new accusation against Darnay bringing the whole family back to France where they are in grave danger.
It is a daunting task to bring this extremely dense material to the stage but the fine repertory actors at ANW certainly rise to it. None more so than Frederick Stuart, an ANW favorite who is always stellar. In the role of Carton, Stuart is riveting from the very first moment you see him to his last devastating act. It is a tour de force performance that is not to be missed.
Tickets for A Tale of Two Cities, starting at $25, are available online at http://www.anoisewithin.org and by phone by calling 626-356-3100. A Noise Within is located on the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Sierra Madre Villa Avenue at 3352 East Foothill Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107, just north of the Madre Street exit off the 210. Metro Gold Line: Sierra Madre Villa Station.
