The Yellow Wallpaper
Music by Sarah Taylor Ellis
Book and lyrics by Lane Williamson
A haunting chamber musical based on the early feminist short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. After the birth of their first child, a well-meaning physician confines his depressed wife to the upstairs bedroom of an isolated summer home. With no physical or mental outlet and only her sister-in-law for companionship, the wife grows obsessed with the tattered yellow wallpaper covering her room. The wallpaper’s intricate patterns soon begin to move in her mind, pushing her to madness. At the intersection of classic musical theater and contemporary classical music, Ellis and Williamson adapt this gripping story into a provocative new theatrical work.
Development and Production History:
Book and lyrics by Lane Williamson
A haunting chamber musical based on the early feminist short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. After the birth of their first child, a well-meaning physician confines his depressed wife to the upstairs bedroom of an isolated summer home. With no physical or mental outlet and only her sister-in-law for companionship, the wife grows obsessed with the tattered yellow wallpaper covering her room. The wallpaper’s intricate patterns soon begin to move in her mind, pushing her to madness. At the intersection of classic musical theater and contemporary classical music, Ellis and Williamson adapt this gripping story into a provocative new theatrical work.
Development and Production History:
- Workshopped at Brooklyn's Gallery Players: November 2014
- Produced by DC's Pallas Theatre Collective: July 1 - 6, 2014
- Analyzed in Julie Grossman's Literature, Film, and Their Hideous Progeny: Adaptation and ElasTEXTity
"The true brilliance of the musical, Chessum says, is how the score, composed by Ellis, reinforces the wallpaper patterns. 'What Sarah does with the music is not just accompany the words of her obsession,' says Chessum, who calls Ellis 'the next Sondheim.' 'What we have is repeated patterns that go backwards and forwards. She allows the music to create that obsession behind the wallpaper.'"
- Washington Post
"The music by Sarah Taylor Ellis is hauntingly beautiful—the melodies carry a sense of foreboding in cautious passages while, in others, cresting with care and hope. From the opening number “It’ll All Be Better Now” to the final rendition, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the music stays in alignment with the various messages and propels the story along nicely under the direction of Tracey Elaine Chessum."
- DC Theatre Scene
"There are so many ways that a story like “Yellow Wallpaper,” first published in 1892, can be demolished in the transfer to another medium — the tonality of the music must match the tone of the piece which shifts and twists and turns like a deteriorating mental state. The young Pallas creative team and crew got it right, so much so that I sought out the story (free online) for another reading, just to reflect on the original source—it’s just as chilling, and with the music and images from the production in mind, it grips to the core."
- DC Theatre Scene
"Were Betty Friedan and H.P. Lovecraft to have a baby, Pallas Theatre Collective’s new musical, might be their demented offspring. [...]
It succeeds in creating an unusual and visually compelling work that sheds light on an important piece of feminist literary history."
- DC Metro Arts
'The next time someone tells me that no one is writing original musicals anymore, I'm going to tell them that Sarah Ellis wrote a
f***ing horror musical about wallpaper.'
- Joe Iconis
- Washington Post
"The music by Sarah Taylor Ellis is hauntingly beautiful—the melodies carry a sense of foreboding in cautious passages while, in others, cresting with care and hope. From the opening number “It’ll All Be Better Now” to the final rendition, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the music stays in alignment with the various messages and propels the story along nicely under the direction of Tracey Elaine Chessum."
- DC Theatre Scene
"There are so many ways that a story like “Yellow Wallpaper,” first published in 1892, can be demolished in the transfer to another medium — the tonality of the music must match the tone of the piece which shifts and twists and turns like a deteriorating mental state. The young Pallas creative team and crew got it right, so much so that I sought out the story (free online) for another reading, just to reflect on the original source—it’s just as chilling, and with the music and images from the production in mind, it grips to the core."
- DC Theatre Scene
"Were Betty Friedan and H.P. Lovecraft to have a baby, Pallas Theatre Collective’s new musical, might be their demented offspring. [...]
It succeeds in creating an unusual and visually compelling work that sheds light on an important piece of feminist literary history."
- DC Metro Arts
'The next time someone tells me that no one is writing original musicals anymore, I'm going to tell them that Sarah Ellis wrote a
f***ing horror musical about wallpaper.'
- Joe Iconis