An evening of intense psychological drama

Beacon — The Railroad Playhouse, in conjunction with the Beacon theater group Cabot & Company, will present "Identity Crisis," an evening of intense psychological dramas about finding out you are not who you think you are. One of Britain's most prolific living playwrights, Caryl Churchill, kicks off the evening with "A Number," followed by recently deceased American master Lanford Wilson's "The Madness of Lady Bright." The production will run through Aug. 20, with performances on Thursday and Friday evenings at 8 and on Saturdays at both 3 and 8, at the Railroad Playhouse, 27 Water St. in Newburgh. Tickets are $20 and are available online through www.rrplayhouse.org or at the door. Churchill's A Number concerns itself with the psychological ramifications of human cloning. A young man is contacted by a hospital and told that as a boy his genetic material was taken and used to make "a number" of copies of himself. Wilson's "The Madness of Lady Bright" is a searing portrait of lust and loneliness, and holds a place in American theater history as being one of the first truly realistic portraits of a gay character on the stage. Leslie Bright, a nightclub performer in his evening persona, has a literal melt down on a hot August Sunday in his un-airconditioned New York City apartment. The two young actors play the voices inside Lady Bright's head as she struggles to keep it together, becoming her mother, herself, her lovers, and her other shards of identity. For more information visit rrplayhouse.org or call 565-3791.