Playwright Peter Fenton appreciates a good bit of irony. So, when he had the chance to stage two performances of his play “Abandon All Hope,” which takes place in Hell, at West Art — a former church turned performance space and arts venue — he jumped at it.
“ ‘Abandon All Hope’ has such ties to my Christian upbringing,” says Fenton, 28. “The fact that West Art was a church at one point and they are very proudly so progressive, it just seemed like the perfect space to stage ‘Abandon All Hope.’ There is something really funny about the idea of a play set in hell in what used to be a church sanctuary. How can you pass that up?”
“Abandon All Hope” is Fenton’s take on Jean Paul Satre’s 1944 existentialist play “No Exit,” which contains perhaps Sarte’s most famous phrase: “Hell is other people.” “Abandon All Hope” features three college freshmen and a fun-loving demon in Fenton’s version of Hell: a college dorm room.
Peter Fenton, a 2013 Conestoga Valley grad, makes his off-Broadway debut with his latest play "Abandon All Hope" on June 10.
The dark comedy/drama contains dark humor, mature themes, sexual innuendo, profanity, alcohol consumption and some criticism of organized religion, and so Fenton says it’s recommended for audiences ages 14 and over.
“Abandon All Hope,” directed by Gorman Ruggiero, has only been performed in front of a live audience once when it made its Off-Broadway world premiere with a sold-out show during last year’s Rogue Theater Festival in New York City. Fenton says that while only about 5% of the script underwent a change since the debut, one of the changes he made was especially meaningful.
READ: Father-son author duo Jim and Peter Fenton talk about their work, and how their faith informs it
READ: Conestoga Valley grad, playwright's work to make off-Broadway debut
The cast remains the same. Avery Kellington, also a producer of the show, plays the trickster demon Teresa. And the three recently deceased freshmen are played by Yuliana Sleme as Melissa, Jonathan P. Chen as Sean and Michael De Los Angeles as Evan.
“We felt like this show was way too good,” says Fenton, who graduated from Conestoga Valley High School in 2013. “We put way too much work in to just do this once. We needed the right time to bring it back.”
“Abandon All Hope” returns to the stage at 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, May 9 and 10.
“It feels like I’m coming home,” says Fenton, who now lives in New Hope. “While I do not currently live in Lancaster, I will always be from here. This is where this is where my writing began.”
Peter Fenton's dramatic comedy "Abandon All Hope," stars Jonathan P. Chen as Sean, Michael De Los Angeles as Evan, and Yuliana Sleme as Melissa, three college freshmen trapped in hell.
The ‘search for goodness’
Fenton penned his first play when he was 13 years old. The play, a comedy adventure called “Good Knight and Goodbye,” impressed his Conestoga Valley Middle School (now Gerald G. Huesken Middle School) eighth grade English teacher, Sue Fisher, so much that she directed a school production of it the following year. Seven years later, Fenton wrote another play “The Thousand Year Rose,” as a retirement gift for Fisher.
“To me, the hallmark of Peter’s writing is his faith in the inherent good nature of people, that when given the opportunity, we will seek to do what is right and compassionate,” Fisher says.
Now, another seven years later, Fisher joined Fenton’s team as a producer of “Abandon All Hope” and found the perfect venue in West Art.
“Producing this play in Lancaster will give those who supported him as a middle schooler an opportunity to see how much he has grown as a playwright,” Fisher says. “It’s also a chance for Lancaster to celebrate a hometown talent. It was fun to do the play in New York last year, but seeing familiar faces in a Lancaster audience will be rewarding.”
For Fenton, having his former English teacher in his corner means a lot, especially as he’s been wading deeper into what calls “the waters of a cutthroat industry.”
“I can’t stress enough just how much it means to have the support of someone with as much talent and love in her heart as Sue Fisher,” Fenton says. “To know there is someone who believes in me every day, even on the days I don’t believe in myself. That’s everything to an artist. What better partner to have than the one who took a chance on me the first time?”
Fisher, who also spotted a young Conestoga Valley student named Jonathan Groff’s talent for theater, says she’s seen Fenton’s writing develop while maintaining a creative throughline.
“In ‘The Thousand Year Rose,’ the characters searched for a pure heart and found it inside someone whom many would consider the most unlikely of people,” Fisher says. “(Fenton’s) search for that same goodness continues in ‘Abandon All Hope,’ as he challenges his characters — and us — to examine our own hearts and actions and to discover if we truly are the people we purport to be.”
And Fenton himself acknowledges that search for goodness is a big part of his creative process.
“I’m motivated by making the world a more thoughtful and loving place,” Fenton says. “I want to continue to broaden people’s views of ‘who should I be generous and loving toward?’ I’m just really excited to show that to the community.”
What’s next
The two-show Lancaster run of “Abandon All Hope,” is the beginning of a busy spring and summer for Fenton.
In June, Fenton will return to the Rogue Theater Festival in New York City to stage a table reading of what he calls a dark comedy retelling of the “Peter Pan” story. Then, in August, Fenton will bring a new production to the Newtown Arts Company — a community theater in Newtown, Pennsylvania.
“I just started writing it in January,” Fenton says. “It’s a teen comedy. I would say it’s like it’s got the biting humor of ‘Mean Girls’ but the emotional undercurrent of ‘Dear Evan Hanson.’ ”
And though Fenton’s plays begin in his writing room, he says he recognizes the team effort it takes to bring the productions to the stage.
“Yes, it is my name on the play, but I’m really touched at how much of a community effort this has been,” Fenton says. “The relationships I’ve been able to build as a result of doing the show just underscores how I have so much love in my life.”
JANE HOLAHAN | Entertainment Reporter
MARY ELLEN WRIGHT | Staff Writer
