‘Killadelphia’ Slated At Cape Playhouse

CAPE MAY — Cape May Stage, as part of their ongoing commitment to quality theatre, is proud to announce a one-night limited engagement of Sean Christopher Lewis’ masterwork Killadelphia: One-Man Mixtape of a City.
Part of Cape May Stage’s Second Stage Series, Lewis plays himself and nearly 20 other characters in this unexpected theatrical tour-de-force. Killadelphia plays one night only, Mon., Oct. 4 at 8 p.m. at the Robert Shackleton Playhouse at the corner of Bank and Lafayette streets.
In the early 2000s, Philadelphia averaged over 400 murders a year, giving rise to the popular idiom that the city had “more bodies than days.”
With its murder rate on par with some third-world countries, the city earned the unfortunate nickname “Killadelphia”. In response, the Mural Arts Program – a non-profit organization charged with the protean task of bringing works of art into areas of the city untouched by anyone but a tagger’s spray can – approached Philadelphia’s InterAct Theatre Company and their playwright-in-residence Sean Christopher Lewis to commission a theater piece about the program and the prisoners who create these murals to beautify the city.
As Lewis began interviewing inmates about the murals, their imprisonment, their crimes, and their lives on the inside, he found that he had more questions than answers, eventually expanding the scope of his inquiry beyond the mural project.
The result is a 75-minute one-man theatrical documentary, giving voice to nearly 20 separate individuals ranging from “lifers” at the Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution in Gratersford, Pa., corrections officers, victims and their families, and Mayor Nutter.
Universally hailed by critics, Killadelphia has been called “a must-see evening of theatre… an epic… a satisfying one-man symphony,” by NYTheatre.com, and “a call to action as well as a plea to open our minds,” by the Philadelphia City Paper.
Tickets are $20. Call 609-884-1341 for reservations and information or visit the theatre’s website, www.capemaystage.com Cape May Stage’s Second Stage Series is presented through the gracious support of Chris and Dave Clemans.