Performance Series
The Story of a Bad Boy
Pontine Theatre commemorates the 100th anniversary of the founding of Portsmouth’s Thomas Bailey Aldrich Memorial with an original adaptation of Aldrich’s masterpiece, THE STORY OF A BAD BOY (1869). In the novel, Aldrich immortalized Portsmouth, when he wrote of the years during which he lived with his Grandfather Bailey on Court Street. More than a modestly fictionalized account of his own boyhood, THE STORY OF A BAD BOY was hailed as a literary breakthrough. Abandoning the moralistic tone of 19th-century children’s literature, Aldrich told his story from a child’s view, full of the wonder, excitement, confusion and mildly bad behavior of a real boy. The novel is also an eloquent and intimate evocation of daily life in Portsmouth, circa 1850.
Supported by Lincoln Financial Group and New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.