Haddonfield Plays & Players presents Stephen Sondheim's Assassins
HADDONFIELD, New Jersey (WPVI) -- Stephen Sondheim's Assassins portrays nine infamous men and women.
Justin Walsh is directing the production for Haddonfield Plays & Players
"Assassins is kind of an imagined situation, where all of the presidential assassins of the past basically end up in the same room together," says Walsh.
They share their struggles with the American dream.
"They talk each other into horrible things," says Walsh.
Two characters, the balladeer and the proprietor, serve as the so-called 'angel and devil on their shoulders,' respectively.
"The balladeer is really the voice of reason," says Walsh.
The show starts with the story of John Wilkes Booth, President Abraham Lincoln's assassin, and moves all the way forward to the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.
Actor Andrew Boettcher plays Booth.
"Giuseppe Zangara tried to assassinate FDR when he was still president-elect," says Walsh. "Leon Czolgosz assassinated President Bill McKinley."
"I am playing Sam Byck," says actor Joe Carlucci. "He tried to assassinate Richard Nixon."
Each assassin, or attempted assassin, shares their rationale.
"I gave you my vote, my sacred Democratic trust," says Carlucci as Byck.
"He just wanted to be heard. He just wanted to have a voice," says Carlucci.
"Every character is a hero in their mind," says Boettcher.
"Every one of them thought they were doing what was right, at the time, either for themselves or for the country," says Walsh. "It shows how seemingly normal a lot of these people started."
It also shows where these men and women took the wrong path.
The stories are told through the music and lyrics of Stephen Sondheim.
"All these characters are looking for some sort of connection, some sort of relationship with someone, and they don't get that," says Boettcher. "This is a cautionary tale."
"As Americans, we all have the right to our freedoms and to our choices, but that doesn't mean we don't have to bear the consequences," says Walsh.
Assassins runs September 20-October 5 at Haddonfield Plays & Players.
