category: full-length two act
genre: period romantic drama
running time: 100 minutes
setting: Various Locations In Italy and England
period: The early 20th century

characters:
LUCY HONEYCHURCH, a young Englishwoman on holiday in Italy
GEORGE EMERSON, a sad young man also on vacation in Italy
CECIL VYSE, a smart but insecure Englishman who thinks himself Italian
CHARLOTTE BARTLETT, Lucy’s cousin and chaperone on their trip to Italy
MR EMERSON, just the nicest man you can imagine, and George’s father
MARION HONEYCHURCH, an upper class widow, mother of Lucy and Freddy
ELEANOR LAVISH, a lady novelist in Florence who befriends Charlotte
FREDDY HONEYCHURCH, Lucy’s brother and Marion’s son
Mr. FLOYD, Freddy’s friend who loves lawn tennis
ARTHUR BEBE, an Anglican reverend in Florence
TERESA ALAN, a little old lady who is travelling the world with her sister
CATHARINE ALAN, Teresa’s younger sister
MRS. VYSE, Cecil’s mother who lives in London
PHAETHON, a young Italian carriage driver
A YOUNG ITALIAN MAN who stabs another one to death
A YOUNG ITALIAN MAN who is stabbed to death
A COCKNEY MAID at the Pensione Bertollini in Florence

story:
Lucy Honeychurch, on holiday in Italy with her cousin Charlotte, is disappointed to find that the rooms they have booked in Florence do not have a view. Complaining about it at dinner that first evening, they are offered the chance to switch rooms with working class Mr. Emerson and his son, George, and after an initial refusal, reluctantly take the men up on their offer. Much to Charlotte’s chagrin, Lucy and George begin a tentative friendship that is solidified after they both witness a random murder in the city square. A subsequent kiss during a picnic turns the relationship romantic, and Lucy is quickly bundled off by her prudish cousin, back to England. Once home again, she becomes engaged to the socially acceptable Cecil. Though very smart and handsome, Cecil habitually looks down on Lucy’s family and quaint rural lifestyle, and soon becomes involved in a local real estate issue out of a perverse whim to humiliate the neighborhood gentry. He succeeds in negotiating the lease of a cottage to someone from the lower classes but his tenants are none other than Mr. Emerson and George. The later is still obviously in love with Lucy and they re-encounter one another, kissing again. Lucy casts George off saying she intends to marry Cecil, but then later that night breaks off her engagement to Cecil, and begins to plan another trip abroad to avoid the assumption that she has done so because of George. At the last moment, Charlotte intervenes, telling Mr. Emerson that Lucy does indeed love George, and the old man is able to plead George’s case. Lucy, realizing that she is throwing away something real, elopes with George, the two of them going back to Italy and the room that first drew them together.

author’s comments: 
The James Ivory film of A ROOM WITH A VIEW, based on the novel by E.M. Forster, changed my life when I saw it for the first time in my mid-teens, and may remaind (aside from THE LAST UNICORN and INTO THE WOODS) the single most informative and influential work of art of my youth. It was my first “art house” movie, and the first time I felt like something in the medium of film not only spoke to me, but helped me understand just what a film could be. By extension, my understanding that I wasn’t like so many of my peers in small but consquential ways went from being something that often felt like a liability to something that might even be celebrated. I found that Forster’s fervid belief that we are not entirely doomed was refreshing, and his love of humanity in all its flawed beauty was infectious, and incredibly helpful for a dour young queer like myself, who largely looked at the world with a mixture of sorrow and hostility. In the years that followed I would not only read all of Forster’s novels multiple times, and see every film based on his work dozens of times more, but I would begin to tinker with creating work both similar in tone and subject, and directly based on his material, the first major effort being PANDEMONIUM in 2014. Of course, the goal had always been to work up to adapting ROOM, but it wasn’t until an opportunity arose in the late COVID-19 pandemic to create a piece of theater for the beautiful ampitheatre in Berkeley’s John Hinkel Park, that I finally felt ready as a writer, and that the correct opportunity had presented itself. With the world recoveirng from the devestation of the Pandemic, I knew what people needed that summer was something funny and heartwarming, but also serious enough to facilitate catharsis, albeit joyful. Additionally, the setting for the production was one of my favorite locations in the Bay Area, a place that looked straight out of Forster’s novel, and my principal collaborators, namely director Andrew Calabrese, people I knew I could trust to share my vision for the piece. While the writing process came naturally, I also often found it hard not to think of the film when trying to create my own interpretation, and early drafts were critisized for being too similar to the book, reverent in a way that was limiting. Eventually this meant creating some material of my own, largely in the early stages of George and Lucy’s relationship, as a stage production benefits neither from the narrative assist of a fully scored film with close ups, nor a novel’s third person narrator. That my brief moments of original material often pass for Forster is, perhaps, one of the greatest compliments of career, and ultimately the script we landed at, and put up, has become of my favorite works and, I think, the best of all my adaptations of anything.

Performances:

The Actor’s Ensemble of Berkeley, July 1, 2, 4, 8, 9, 15 & 16, in the ampitheatre at John Hinkel Park, Berkeley, California. Directed by Andrew Calabrese. Costumes by Genevieve Perdue and Adriana Schurman; Props and Set Pieces by Susan Dunn; Set Design by Leif Pearson; Artwork and Photography by Vicki Victoria. Stage Managed by Mary Tran and Alyssa Riddell. Cast: Sophie Ruf (Lucy), Megan Briggs (Charlotte), Tyler Scott Null (George), Keith Jefferds (Mr. Emerson/Young Man), Francis Serpa (Cecil/Young Man), Khizer (Izzy) Iqbal (Freddie/Phaethon), Joyce Jacobson (Teresa Alan/Cockney Maid), Stanley Spenger (Arthur Beebe/Mr. Floyd), Marcia van Broek (Catharine Alan/Mrs. Vyse), Lisa Wang (Marion/Eleanor).