In the early 1870s. Anne Gilchrist, an educated English writer, began corresponding with Walt Whitman after he sent her his grateful admiration for a glowing magazine article she wrote, “An Englishwoman’s Estimate of Walt Whitman.” When she set sail for Philadelphia in 1876, she was passionately in love with the poet, though the two had never met face-to-face. Drawing on their actual letters interspersed with imagined scenes of their dramatic encounters (by John Sullivan), this play in three short acts explores the unusual friendship that developed between the besotted Gilchrist and the reticent (and presumably homosexual) Whitman. Presented reader’s-theater style, with interludes of songs set to Whitman poems by Ned Rorem and Leonard Bernstein (and sung by Eileen Hunt and Ted von Pohle), “Unreturn’d” sheds light on a poignant relationship marked by acceptance, understanding, and magnanimity.

Rescheduled Date to Be Announced
Ticket price $30.00