Romance language

When not directing stage productions for Pioneer Theatre Company, Charles Morey — the company's artistic director — keeps himself busy writing his own plays.

Morey's latest, "Alexandre Dumas and The Lady of the Camelias," will have its world premiere on the Lees Main Stage of Simmons Pioneer Memorial Theatre Wednesday.

The story came from research Morey did for "The Three Musketeers" and "The Count of Monte Cristo," two Alexandre Dumas swashbucklers he adapted for earlier PTC seasons. He became fascinated by a story about Dumas' son, also named Alexandre, who had an infamous love affair with Paris' most beautiful — and most notorious — courtesan, Marie Duplessis. The two began their yearlong affair in 1844, when they were both 20. Three years later, Duplessis died of tuberculosis.

Morey said he thought the story would make a great play — although, this is not the first time the talk-of-Paris romance has been told. In 1848, the younger Dumas wrote and published a novel based on their relationship. It was an instant hit in Paris. Four years later, Dumas turned the novel into a play, which Morey said "was probably the most successful play of the 19th century."

In 1853, Guiseppe Verdi borrowed the same plot for his renowned opera, "La Traviata."

"We have four levels of descriptions of the same event — the real event, the novel, the play and the opera," Morey said between rehearsals. (He is also directing the production.)

Morey's new slant on the story is a blend of historical fact and artistic fiction, he explained. The script has Dumas, during the last year of his life (1895), stumbling into a rehearsal of "La Traviata" in Paris.

"He is allowed to stay and watch the rehearsal," said Morey, "and as the rehearsal proceeds, he tries to remember the real events and to cut through all those fictions to get back to the actual truth of the story."

In the Pioneer Theatre Company version, the story will be operating on several parallel tracks — the opera rehearsal, Dumas' memories of the events and what he wrote in his novel and play, and his corrections and internal thoughts about what really happened."

"Alexandre Dumas and The Lady of the Camelias" might have been postponed until a later season if it weren't for "the great luxury" of an intensive, two-week workshop last June with the Connecticut Repertory Theatre Company in Storrs, Conn. James Prigmore, PTC's resident music director, was among those involved with the workshop sessions.