The Peccadillo Theater Company
Negro Ensemble Company
Eric Falkenstein

present

Ceremonies in Dark Old Men
by Lonne Elder III
directed by Clinton Turner Davis

starring Norm Lewis
(The Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess, Les Misérables, TV’s “Pose,” Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods)

with:
Felicia Boswell
James Foster Jr.
Morgan Siobhan Green
Jeremiah Packer
Calvin M. Thompson
Bryce Michael Wood

Design:
Scenic: Harry Feiner
Lighting: Jimmy Lawlor
Costume: Isabel Rubio

Production Stage Manager: April Ann Kline
Assistant Stage Manager: Isaac Goldbaum

April 11th - June 29th, 2025

Playing at:
Theatre at St. Clements
423 West 46th Street
(between Ninth and Tenth Avenues)

It’s New York in the 1950s. Russell Parker, a ne'er-do-well barber and the widowed father of three adult children, spends his days playing checkers and reminiscing about his life in vaudeville as an old-style song and dance man. His two sons, Theo and Bobby, are dreamers of a different sort – a pair of petty criminals looking for a “score" in the form of ill-conceived and dangerous bootlegging and numbers schemes. Russell's daughter, Adele, the only gainfully employed member of the family, eventually threatens to walk out, refusing to work herself into an early grave like her mother. When Adele's long-simmering resentments boil over and the boys' criminal enterprise falls apart, tragic consequences ensue for the whole family.

A New York Times Critics Pick

“A new production starring an excellent Norm Lewis... As with the best of these observant midcentury dramas, ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ and ‘Death of a Salesman’ among them, ‘Ceremonies’ has a bird’s-eye understanding of human behavior, grounded by the specificity of its setting. ... the play and production have an undeniable dramatic and social potency.  It’s as essential as any in the oft-revived midcentury American canon.”

– Juan A. Ramierez, The New York Times

“This play is a classic. We’ve got to get tickets right away!”

– Good Day New York, FOX5 TV

“A veteran director and his supple actors mine the play’s bracing naturalism. … The cast is led by Norm Lewis a Broadway favorite [with a] mighty voice, using his natural warmth and charm to initially endear himself to the audience. … Blue is given vivid life by Calvin M. Thompson. A model of slick poise in his natty suit and cane. Blue grows increasingly menacing without ever really losing his cool; Mr. Thompson sustains this balance expertly, so that by Act Two his slightest gesture can be chilling. Bryce Michael Wood proves equally resourceful and affecting as Theo. … This fine production, surely stings as much as it did more than 55 years ago.”

– Elysa Gardner, New York Sun