Key West Art & Historical Society Kicks off Distinguished Speaker Series with Hemingway Performer and Playwright Brian Gordon Sinclair
Brian Gordon Sinclair, author of Hemingway On Stage, will kick off Key West Art & Historical Society’s Distinguished Speaker Series with a farewell performance of Adios Ernesto: The Last Words of Ernest Hemingway on Thursday, November 12 at 6:00pm at the Tropic Cinema.
Considered the foremost dramatic interpreter of Ernest Hemingway in the world today, Sinclair has written and performed a series of seven Hemingway plays since 2001, five of which have premiered at the Hemingway Days Festival in Key West. Collectively known as The Hemingway Monologues: An Epic Drama of Love, Genius and Eternity, Sinclair’s plays reflect careful research of texts, biographies, letters, and anecdotes and his engaging performances capture the iconic author’s spirit and essence strong and heroic with moments of sublime tenderness.
Sinclair’s final performance at the Tropic features Hemingway in Africa with his 4th wife Mary, where Hemingway’s two plane crashes mark a gradual but certain deterioration in health. Though he wins the Nobel Prize and manages to continue writing in spite of intrusions on his privacy, he eventually succumbs to a series of losses that include his beloved Finca Vigia, which lead him to the Mayo clinic— and ultimately, his demise. Despite the dramatic tension and sense of tragedy, Sinclair skillfully provides the audience with healthy doses of comic relief, a technique that works in making Ernest more “human and enjoyable to play and to watch,” says Sinclair.
Following the performance, Sinclair will discuss the transition from performance to publication for all seven of his Hemingway plays. After selected readings, he will premiere original chapters from a new book, The Homerun Kid: The True Story of Ernest Hemingway’s Baseball Team. The book was edited and adapted by Sinclair from the memoirs of Cayuco “Jonronero”, the surviving member of the original 1940’s ball team, the Gigi All-Stars.
The presentation is part of the organization’s Distinguished Speaker Series, a twice-monthly program that highlights the abundant history and cultural assets of Key West and the Florida Keys through informal lectures, performances, and presentations.
Tickets are available at the Tropic Box Office—$18 KWAHS and Tropic Members/Non Members $20. This annual lecture series is made possible in part by the generosity of the Helmerich Trust. For more information, contact Gerri Sidoti, Program Director at 295.6616 x 106 or visit WWW.KWAHS.ORG.
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