‘Violet
Hour’ delivers colorful story
By Monica Levette Clark
On-line Forty-Niner
 Imagine
the office of one of your most disorganized,
Cal State Long Beach professors. Student
essays are piled on top of coffee stained
desks or thrown all over the office floor;
yesterday’s newspaper and boxes full of
past projects are on top of those essays.
This describes the main scene of South Coast
Repertory’s the “Violet Hour,” a world-premiere
play by Richard Greenberg set between 1910
and 1920.
The play’s characters were realistic and
included: John Pace Seavering, a publisher
who is unsure of himself and his career
choice; Denis McCleary, an amateur but ambitious
writer and friend of Seavering; Gidger,
Seavering’s overworked and overlooked personal
assistant; Jessie Brewster, a token black
character who is extremely confident but
is blemished with secrets from her past;
and Rosamund Plinth, the spoiled, flighty
daughter of a famous meat-packing industry
mogul.
In this two-hour long play, Greenberg recreates
an era early in the “American Century” when
times were fast, and there was money to
be made. Seavering, the protagonist, has
to decide if he will publish the three-box
long first novel of his longtime friend,
McCleary, or that of his secret lover of
the wrong color, Brewster.
As if there wasn’t enough on his plate,
two more really good manuscripts come into
the office. The catch is — they are from
the future. They reveal to the publisher
the fate of McCleary’s marriage to Plinth,
the past life of his lover Brewster and
other things that he is ashamed to know.
The play shows what can happen in one day
inside a New York high-rise overlooking
Fifth Avenue.
The “Violet Hour” is described by
McCleary as “that New York hour when the
evening is about to reward you for the day.”
The play runs through Sunday at the Folino
Theatre Center located at 655 Town Center
Drive in Costa Mesa. Shows are at 7:45 p.m.
with weekend matinees at 2 p.m.
For more information students can call the
box office at (714) 708-5555.
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