Occupation Dragonslayer

There will be many somber commemorations of 9/11 this year, the fifteenth anniversary of the event that turned our world upside down.

This is not one of them.

Occupation: Dragonslayer is the heartwarming, melodious and totally engaging story of an extraordinary Everyman, his lethal nemesis, and the ordinary people caught up, each in their own unique way, by what happened on that "sky-of-blue September day."

Christmas Eve, 2002, a year and a season after 9/11. The doomed Tower Diner at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan. The loyal staff and eccentric regulars gather to raise one final toast before the wrecking ball strikes. Enter a mysterious stranger, who seems to be a firefighter with no memory of who he is, but a preternatural ability to decipher the secrets of those he encounters. With a fierce sense of purpose he battles the real estate profiteer cashing in on the tragedy, but in so doing uncovers the profound, sad secret of his own identity, paradoxically restoring hope to all the lonely strangers he encounters.

Back in 2002, when the wound was fresh, Bryan Williams and Lance Hewett created this mystical tale rooted in the events that changed our world in ways we couldn't have imagined at the time. Lance passed away last February, but it had long been a dream of his to revisit the musical for this 15th anniversary year, to remind ourselves of the purity of spirit of a nation once united (mostly) by tragedy.

Occupation: Dragonslayer began life as a commission from the Public Theatre -- just across the street from the Robert Moss Theatre where we will be performing. That embryonic version, Occupation: Troubadour, was presented as a Christmas musical by Trenton's professional theatre, Passage Theatre. Despite the horrors of 9/11 -- not the least of which was the behavior of certain politicians and business leaders -- in the holiday season of 2002 the writers felt a need to memorialize something remarkable, the genuine spirit of those first few months afterwards. Fifteen years later, that spirit remains a haunting memory.

For more ahout the history of Isle of Shoals Productions, please click here