October 17 , 2003

Among the offerings at the 2003 Edinburgh Fringe Festival—the largest arts festival in the world—was Red Bessie, a play cowritten by history professor Daniel Czitrom and Sarasota-based playwright Jack Gilhooley.
The play, a historical drama with original and period songs, follows the lives of two American Communists between the radical idealism of the 1930s and the anti-Communist repression of the 1950s. Red Bessie ran for 25 performances in August, receiving glowing reviews from critics and an enthusiastic response from audiences. In the September 5 issue of the Times Literary Supplement, critic Keith Miller described Red Bessie as "clearheaded and humane, not unaware of the hurt that political idealism can cause, and more fun than might be expected of such a high-minded project." Writing in the London magazine Three Weeks, Ron Nissin called it "a brilliantly illuminating, frequently hilarious political show." The CSJ recently spoke to Czitrom about the play and how a historian finds his way into theatre. more>

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