Merryall remembers Playwright Bill C. Davis with a reading of The Sex King featuring Jack Gilpin and Bethany Watson

Sex, crimes and lies right here in the Litchfield Hills…Merryall will be paying tribute to playwright Bill C. Davis,  best known for his celebrated work, Mass Appeal.

The reading will be performed by Actor Jack Gilpin, currently starring in HBO’s The Gilded Age and Bethany Watson of radio fame as co-host of Elvis Duran in the Morning on Z 100. The play will be under the direction of playwright Dean Gray.

Davis was inspired by a true story he came across in The Hartford Courant...about a man on trial for running a multimillion-dollar prostitution ring for over two decades out of his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. An escort service or a pimp…that was the question for the jury. And then Davis.

In Bill C. Davis’ dramatization, the accused agrees to be interviewed by a young female journalist, in search of a career making story. “My play is all about how these two people change each other’s views of the world and themselves,” he explained before the play debuted.

Adds actor Bethany Watson, “It was so exciting… throughout the reading there is this power dynamic…first he has the power then it changes, switches and there is a powerful struggle between the two characters. Both have preconceived notions about each other, and both are caught off guard…then neither is ever the same.”

According to the play’s director and Merryall Board President, Dean Gray, “we thought it was important to pay tribute to Bill C. Davis, a prolific playwright and lifelong area resident who passed away in 2021 at the age of 69.” Gray adds, “The Sex King is a powerful, well-crafted fictionalized retelling of a sordid local legend. And in its retelling, to quote Davis, ‘It’s about a man who emerges as a confounding iconoclast, liberated pacifist, activist, family man and romantic.’

 So, escort service or prostitution ring? We hope you’ll join us at Merryall on the 10th and judge for yourself,” invited Gray.

Tickets for the September 10th event are $20 and available online at merryallcenter.org.

The Merryall Center is a non-profit organization located at 8 Chapel Hill Road. For more information about the organization, including upcoming events and memberships, discounts, and pricing, visit the Center’s website at merryallcenter.org.

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Submitted by New Milford, CT

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