For The Love Of Music: Monmouth Players Stage 'Opus'

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Fragile egos, exceptional talents and a priceless violin combine to create a complex intersection of relationships and rivalries for the Lazara String Quartet just as their breakthrough moment arrives — a concert at the White House. The interactions and twists as the musicians prepare create the clever and nuanced story of Opus by Michael Hollinger and presented by Monmouth Players this weekend at the theater located in the rear of the Navesink Library at the corner of Monmouth and Sears avenues in the Navesink section of Middletown.

(L-R) Eric Walby, Charles Deitz Sr., Heather O’Scanlon, Bob Mira and Bill Rogers as a group of high-strung musicians in "Opus."

Opus explores the dynamics as musicians, disparate personalities bound together only by a love of music, struggle to maintain the harmony of the group. The story unfolds in present time and in flashbacks that sharply etch the different personalities.
Practices become volatile, tensions mount and personalities clash and the group decides to abandon their planned Pachelbel Canon program and replace it with Beethoven’s difficult Opus 131.
Opus received a 2007 Harold and Mimi Steinberg New Play Citation from the American Theatre Critics Association, and the Arden Theatre production in Philadelphia was nominated for seven Barrymore Awards, winning for Outstanding New Play.
Performances start at 8:15 Dec. 9-10 and 2 p.m. Dec. 11. Admission is $14. Reservations are required. Call (732) 291-9211. For more information visit www.monmouthplayers.org.