Closing Bell: Revival of Edward Albee Play Debuts Tomorrow at Interfaith Hospital

New Brooklyn Theater Company tomorrow begins a controversial 10-day production about race and medical care, Edward Albee’s 1959 play “The Death of Bessie Smith,” staged at an actual hospital, Bed Stuy’s Interfaith Medical Center. Like other Brooklyn hospitals serving low-income populations, it is having financial difficulties and is likely to close. The play explores what happens after black blues singer Bessie Smith is injured in a car accident in Mississippi. Legend has it that she died because a “whites-only” hospital refused to admit her.

Several Brooklyn notables, including Public Advocate Letitia James, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries and City Councilmember Laurie Cumbo, are expected to attend.

The theater company, which tried to buy the Slave Theater before it sold to a developer, hopes to inspire discussions about the intersections of race, class and access to health care.

“The location of Interfaith Medical Center was chosen to highlight the threat of imminent closure that the hospital faces and to provoke discussion about how such decisions are made in our society, particularly when they impact low-income, chiefly African-American patient populations as in Bedford Stuyvesant, Interfaith’s main catchment area,” the theater wrote in a press release.

Ticket are free and available to reserve here. The play will open tomorrow night and run for eight performances through January 19. And each performance will be followed by talkbacks or panel discussions with leaders in government, arts and health.

Image via Wikimedia Commons/Library of Congress