B´ÎÔª¹ÙÍøÍøÖ·

This November, the B´ÎÔª¹ÙÍøÍøÖ· will participate in the national Fall of Freedom project: a weekend of artistic demonstrations across the country that celebrate freedom of expression and resist authoritarianism, by presenting a free staged reading of It Can’t Happen Here, Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 political satire. 

Adapted from Lewis’s novel by Tony Taccone and Bennett S. Cohen, It Can’t Happen Here presents a cautionary dark satire about the fragility of democracy and how fascism can take hold even in the land of liberty. IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE follows the ascent of a demagogue who becomes president of the United States by promising to return the country to greatness. Witnessing the new president’s tyranny from the sidelines is a liberal, middle-class newspaper editor from Vermont who trusts the system will fix itself—until he ends up in a prison camp. Sinclair Lewis’ eerily prescient 1935 novel gets a fresh update in this adaptation that examines what brings a citizenry to the point of sacrificing its own freedom and how a courageous few can prevail to overcome the fall.

Directed by Margo Whitcomb

Featuring: Aliza Azarian, Jonathan Brathwaite, Brittney Malik, Robert Nuner, Mark Roberts, Caleb Roman, Quinn Rol, David Ruffin, Zeina Salame, Dominic Spillane, Zach Stark, James Stewart, Kevin Sweeney, and Ruth Wallman.

With Special Guests:

Carol Ode, Vermont State Representative

Susan Evans McClure, Executive Director of the Vermont Arts Council

Christopher Kaufman Ilstrup, Executive Director of the Vermont Humanities

Jay Wahl, Executive Director of the B´ÎÔª¹ÙÍøÍøÖ·

Miro Weinberger, Executive Chair of Let's Build Homes, Former Mayor of Burlington, Member of the B´ÎÔª¹ÙÍøÍøÖ· Board of Directors