Directed by Rick Lombardo**
The time is the Dark Ages and the place England, as Ymma, a young noblewoman in exile from Normandy, arrives on the shores of Canterbury. Passionate, brilliant, fiery, and beautiful, Ymma quickly offends Ethelred, England’s narrow-minded king. As punishment, he commands her to marry Silence, a fourteen-year-old lord who longs to become a warrior. Quickly, the newlyweds conspire to take advantage of their mismatched marriage, reaching an agreement that grants them both their freedom. Ymma and Silence set out on the open road, but as Viking warriors threaten the shores of England, as the new millennium dawns and the faithful wonder if the apocalypse is at hand, the young couple’s strength is tested. Smart, sexy, silly, and overflowing with ideas, Silence interweaves youthful adventure with a profound meditation on questions of identity, freedom, religion, nationalism, and the possibilities of faith and tolerance in an uncertain world.
Photo: Lewis D. Wheeler. Photo by Andrew Brilliant/Brilliant Pictures
MICHAEL KAYE* returns to New Repertory Theatre after performing in Good, Broken Glass, The Elephant Man, Amadeus, Opus, House With No Walls, and Silence. He also appeared in Good this past summer Off-Broadway (PTP/NYC). Other area credits include Mothers and Sons and Clybourne Park (SpeakEasy Stage Company); Uncle Jack, Monster, The Glass Menagerie, and Good (Boston Center for American Performance); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Actors’ Shakespeare Project); Book of Days (Lyric Stage Company); and various productions at Huntington Theatre Company and Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. Mr. Kaye serves as Assistant Professor of Acting at Boston University School of Theatre, where he earned both his BFA and MFA in Acting and Theatre Education respectively. Born in Chicago, he now lives in Sandwich, NH.
LEWIS D. WHEELER* has previously appeared at New Rep in Ideation, The Gift Horse, Muckrakers, Pattern of Life, Rancho Mirage, Long Day’s Journey into Night, Silence, and a touring production of Cyrano. Recent credits include Finish Line (Boston Theater Company); Hand to God (SpeakEasy Stage Company); and Uncanny Valley (Stoneham Theatre). Regional credits include No Man’s Land (American Repertory Theater); Richard II (Actors’ Shakespeare Project); Blood on the Snow (Bostonian Society); A Number and The Glass Menagerie (Lyric Stage Company); Doubt and An Ideal Husband (Gloucester Stage Company); and five seasons with Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre. Also, American Stage (FL), Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Nora Theatre Company, Underground Railway Theater, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Vineyard Playhouse, Publick Theatre, Cape Rep, Shakespeare Now, Wellesley Repertory Theatre, Wheelock Family Theatre. Lewis was a founding member of Harbor Stage in Wellfleet, where he performed in The Seagull and Hedda Gabler and directed David Rabe’s Sticks and Bones. Film and television credits include Manchester by the Sea, Live by Night, Black Mass, The Company Men, Pink Panther 2, Louisa May Alcott (PBS), Brotherhood. Lewis earned his BA in Theatre and Film Studies at Cornell University and his MFA from the American Film Institute. He resides in Boston and is a proud member of Actors’ Equity since 2004. He appears next in To Kill a Mockingbird as Atticus at Gloucester Stage and in Shakespeare in Love at SpeakEasy Stage.
