The Cat's Meow

The play was adapted for film in 2002, with a screenplay by the author, directed by Peter Bogdanovich, and starring Kirsten Dunst, Eddie Izzard, and Edward Herrmann

Weekend guests include: Charlie Chaplin, who has been carrying on with movie star Marion Davies, a secret known to Davies' paramour, the married and much older -- Hearst; and movie mogul Thomas Ince, who is hoping to revive his flagging fortunes by forming a partnership with Hearst. Playing with fire, Ince tries to convince Hearst that he can handle both Marion's movie career and her private life as well

During its 1997 Los Angeles premiere, audiences and critics were both entertained and moved by this darkly comic morality play, laced with clandestine romance, Hollywood excess, and steadily heating tensions, which erupt in a shocking act of violence

"Hearst Yacht Mystery is The Cat's Meow ... A stylish and sardonically funny expose of corrupt Tinseltown values" ~ The Los Angeles Times

"Recommended Hands Down! Will have you on the edge of your seat" ~ CBS Radio

"A terrific new drama" ~ The Los Angeles Daily News

"Steven Peros' intriguing fictionalized speculation imagines the worst as everyone cavorts through an oceanic orgy of intrigue, seduction, infidelity, blackmail, booze, drugs, and murder" ~ The Daily Variety

Characters ...

ELINOR GLYN - 60, British romance novelist, screenwriter, and social dictator

THOMAS INCE - 40s, a silent film pioneer and studio mogul

MARGARET LIVINGSTON - 20s, an actress and mistress to Ince

GEORGE THOMAS - Ince's business manager

MARION DAVIES - 27 (but passing for 23), a movie star and Hearst's public mistress

CHARLIE CHAPLIN - 35, British, an internationally known movie star

LOUELLA PARSONS - 40s, a Hearst movie reviewer from the East Coast

WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST - 62, Newspaper and silver mining magnate. A large, wealthy, powerful, married man

JOSEPH WILLICOMBE - Hearst's loyal and discreet personal secretary

DR. DANIEL GOODMAN - 40s, former physician, now a Hearst movie studio executive

MRS. GOODMAN - 30s, Dr. Goodman's conservative wife

CELIA MOORE - 20s, a flapper/actress

DIDI DAWSON - 20s, also a flapper actress

MRS. INCE (VOICE ON PHONE) - 40s, Ince's recently awoken wife, who remained at home. (NOTE: For "Mrs. Ince", some productions have had an actress appear on stage, with a phone in her hand. If this method is utilized, doubling is possible with "Mrs. Goodman")