Year of the Empire at the Metropolitan Playhouse

The Metropolitan Playhouse presents Year of the Empire, by Elinor Fuchs and Joyce Antler, directed by Alex Roe , opening at the Metropolitan Playhouse on 7 Mar 2008, following previews from 29 Feb and running through to 30 Mar 2008.

Year of the Empire: At the dawn of the twentieth century, with wealth at hand and power up for grabs, a company of restless American idealists and cunning powerbrokers made a gamble that would change the history of the world.

Spurred by the rebellion in Cuba and tempted by the decline of the Spanish Empire, such figures as Commodore George Dewey, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, and an up-and-coming Theodore Roosevelt maneuvered on the battlefields, fought on the Senate floor, and plotted in the back rooms to give birth to the American empire. Guam, Wake Island, Puerto Rico, and ultimately the Philippines were purchased in cash and blood. And then America forgot.