The Fringe Festival at Centenary Stage Company continues this weekend with “A Tale of Two Cities, Cobbled Together by the Brothers Lovejoy.” 

Performances will run tonight, Friday, Oct. 22 at 8 p.m.; Saturday, Oct. 23 at 8 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 24 at 2 p.m. in the Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center at 715 Grand Ave, Hackettstown. Ticket prices range from $22.50 to $27.50 for adults. Discounts are available for select performances for seniors, students, and children 12 and younger. For more information or to purchase tickets call the Centenary Stage Company box office at (908) 979 – 0900 or visit Centenary Stage Company on-line at centenarystageco.org  

One epic. Two brothers. What could go wrong? Avery (Ezra Barnes) and Bunce Lovejoy (Michael Gabriel Goodfriend) are brothers who share a dilapidated home. They are obsessed with A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens’ classic story of love and loneliness, rags and riches, revenge and sacrifice set in the turmoil of the French Revolution. They reenact the novel, playing all the characters themselves and putting their own stamp on the dissolute Sidney Carton, the bitter Madame DeFarge, the guileless Lucy, the earnest Darnay and sundry others. As they do, they bicker and revise, endlessly debating how best to tell the story.  

The play was written and directed by Craig Fols who studied with Stella Adler and Paul Austin and has credits on and off the stage including, “Nasty Little Secrets” (Kenneth Halliwell), “The Musical of Musicals” (The Hero), and his own work “Buck Simple.” Barnes has credits Off-Broadway as well as in television and film, including the New York premiere of Fraser Grace’s “Breakfast with Mugabe,” “Orange is the New Black” and “Jessica Jones”, and the films “Motherless Brooklyn” and “Noah”. Goodfriend returns to the Centenary Stage Company stage. Previous credits include Hovstad in CSC’s “An Enemy of the People” and Ali in “The English Bride” as well as shows in New York, Los Angeles, and abroad.  

Centenary Stage Company remains committed to the health and safety of our community and adheres to all requirements set forth by the State of New Jersey.  For more information regarding CSC COVID-19 policies and policy updates, visit centenarystageco.org/faq.  

The 2021-22 season of performing arts events at the Centenary Stage Company is made possible through the generous support of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the NJ State Council on the Arts, the Shubert Foundation, the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, the Sandra Kupperman Foundation, the John and Margaret Post Foundation, and CSC corporate sponsors, including Platinum Season Sponsor The House of the Good Shepherd, Silver Sponsors Hackettstown Medical Center Atlantic Health System, Home Instead Senior Care (Washington), and Fulton Bank, and Centenary Stage Company members and supporters.  

Photo by Joseph Henry Ritter, ffom left: Michael Gabriel Goodfriend, Craig Fols, Ezra Barns