Event

The Thin Man

A world premiere City Lit adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's detective novel The Thin Man opens the season. Adapted by McCabe and directed by Adrianne Cury, it tells the story of Nick Charles, a retired private eye who is unwillingly drawn into solving a murder in Prohibition-era Manhattan. He and his extremely clever wife Nora share brilliant repartee and much drinking.

Hammett, author of The Maltese Falcon and a former Pinkerton detective, based the central relationship in The Thin Man, his final novel, on his own relationship with the playwright Lillian Hellman, with whom he lived on and off for thirty years. "It was nice to be Nora," Hellman recalled years later. "But I was soon put back in my place. Hammett said I was also the silly girl in the book and the villainess." The Thin Man begins previews on Friday, August 28, 2009, and runs through Sunday, October 11.

City Lit Theater is located in the historic Edgewater Presbyterian Church building at 1020 West Bryn Mawr Avenue, one block west of Sheridan Road and a block and a half east of the Bryn Mawr Red Line L stop. The 84 Peterson bus, the 147 Lake Shore Express bus, and the 151 Sheridan bus all stop near City Lit. Valet parking is available for theatre customers.

City Lit specializes in literate theatre, including stage adaptations of literary material.