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World Premiere

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A new play adapted from Sir Peter Ackroyd’s award-winning book and directed by Quantum Theatre founder Karla Boos, Chatterton spreads out in three dimensions, immersing its mobile audiences in the haunting spaces of Trinity Cathedral.

Chatterton’s plot takes inspiration from historical character Thomas Chatteron, the Romantic era’s most famous suicide, an 18th century poet who took his young life and was immortalized 100 years later by a very famous painting. Modeling for that painting was Victorian poet George Meredith, whose own dramatic life also features in Ackroyd’s story. And in the present, poet Charles Wychwood goes on a hunt to solve mysterious puzzles from the past – is what we believe about Thomas Chatterton truth or fiction?

Chatterton offers a trifecta of poets in three centuries, colorful London with Dickensian characters bristling with humor, and deep debates on what is real, what is fake, asking is anything ‘authentic’ in the intertwining worlds of art and commerce?

In the manner of Quantum’s 2014 production TAMARA, the audience moves through masterfully dressed spaces in a stunning historic landmark. The experience begins with pre-show drinks in Pittsburgh’s oldest Church Yard and includes a full intermission dinner by the celebrity chef of the week.

Quantum Theatre is Pittsburgh’s longstanding company of theatrical innovators, who make the city their canvas as they inventively transform real places into sites for magical stories and experiences.