A free performance of the compelling 1892 drama “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Over the Moon Productions will return to the Vachel Lindsay Home State Historic Site on Saturday, October 13 at 7 p.m. Since seating is limited, reservations must be made by calling (217) 524-0901. Reservation requests will be accepted on voice mail and confirmed with a return phone call.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” by author Charlotte Perkins Gilman is regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature, illustrating attitudes in the 19th century toward women’s physical and mental health. The story is told through the secret journal entries of a narrator whose physician husband has confined her to the bedroom of a house he has rented for the summer. She is confined to a room with bars on the windows, a gate across the stairs and yellow wallpaper for what the husband calls a “temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency,” a diagnosis common to women of that period. The performance is not suitable for small children.
“The Yellow Wallpaper,” directed by Springfield’s Kevin Purcell, stars Aasne Vigesaa. It has been performed for capacity crowds at the Lindsay Home each time it has been presented the past several years. The October 13 performance will be the final time to see “The Yellow Wallpaper” this year at the Lindsay Home.
There is always a waiting list to see “The Yellow Wallpaper,” so those with reservations whose plans for the evening change are asked to contact the Lindsay Home. The doors open at 6:30 p.m. and there will be no seating after 7 p.m.
The Vachel Lindsay Home State Historic Site at 603 S. Fifth Street, Springfield, is the birthplace and longtime residence of poet, author and artist Nicholas Vachel Lindsay, 1879-1931. It is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for free public tours.
