Harriet Jacobs January 7, 2010

Harriet Jacobs’ harrowing true story about her life as a slave in the years leading to the Civil War comes to the stage in Harriet Jacobs, a new play by Lydia R. Diamond. Presented by Underground Railway Theater in collaboration with artists from The Providence Black Repertory Company, Harriet Jacobs is playing Central Square Theater Thursday, January 7 till Sunday, January 31.

Astonishing and moving, Harriet Jacobs is the story of a remarkable woman’s resistance to oppression. To escape a predatory master, Jacobs hid in a crawl space for seven years, watching her children grow up under the care of her own grandmother. In Lydia R. Diamond’s adaptation of Jacobs’ autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet reaches out from her own era and compels us to look at our history as if for the first time. Directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian, this unsparing yet poetic coming-of-age story is based on the only published book-length slave narrative written by a woman.

Harriet Jacobs plays at Central Square Theater, 450 Mass. Ave. in Cambridge, Thursday, January 7 through Sunday, January 31. Performances are Thursdays at 7:30 PM, Friday and Saturday at 8 PM with matinees on Sundays at 2 PM. There will be additional evening performances on Wednesday, January 13 at 7:30 PM and Sunday, January 10 at 7:00 PM. Tickets, priced at $35; $25 for seniors; $20 for students with a valid ID; $15 for student rush (day of performance), can be purchased by calling (866) 811-4111, online at www.centralsquaretheater.org, or at the Central Square Theater box office. For box office hours, group discounts, and more info call (617) 576-9278 x213. For information on student matinees, contact Maggie Moore Abdow, Education Director, Underground Railway Theater, (617) 576-9278 x207.