Thomas Edward Cone (1947 – April 2012) was a Canadian-American
playwright and
librettist.
Cone's work often presented provocative ideas about morality and art and it stretches existing forms through the integration of music and the visual arts. In many of his plays, characters are "riding a fault line, about to make a change which may result in tragedy",[1] sharing an "evocative, somewhat taboo recollection of their common past".[2] In True Mummy two former lovers who once crossed a dangerous line together, are reunited. The title of the play refers to a black, luminous glaze used by artists such as
J. M. W. Turner, that was made from the ash of cremated mummies.[3] Visions of life and death of an Egyptian Princess form alternating scenes, and, as she is being prepared for mummification, towards the end of the play when a Turner painting is displayed, it becomes clear that she is on it.
Other plays include Herringbone, Stargazing and Love at Last Sight and Cone wrote librettos for operas The Architect (for
Vancouver Opera, 1993), The Gang (Vancouver New Music, 1997), and Game Misconduct (
Vancouver Playhouse 2000).[4] He also wrote adaptations of
Molière's The Miser and
Goldoni's The Servant of Two Masters[5] which were performed at the
Stratford Festival where he was a writer-in-residence between 1978 and 1980.
Cone adapted Herringbone into a musical in 1981, with music by Skip Kennon and lyrics by
Ellen Fitzhugh. It premiered in Chicago followed by productions in New York at
Playwrights Horizons, in London at
The King's Head Theatre, at the
Edinburgh Festival, at Hartford Stage starring
Joel Grey, and in many cities throughout North America. From 2007 to 2009 it toured
Williamstown Theater Festival,
McCarter Theatre (Princeton, NJ) and the
La Jolla Playhouse (CA) in a production starring
BD Wong, directed by
Roger Rees.[6][7]
Tom Cone lived in
Vancouver where he was an active curator and promoter of experimental music and the avant-garde.[8] He died in April 2012 of cancer.[9] He was survived by his wife Karen Matthews and child Ruby Cone.