Up first is Larry Shue’s The Foreigner, opening October 4th-14th, and directed by Jill Jeffrey. This play follows Charlie, a melancholy English fellow who adamantly claims he can’t bear to speak while stuck in a lodge in Georgia, far apart from his ill wife. This leads to an interesting case of mistaken identity when the workers and patrons of the lodge are led to believe he is a foreign man from an unnamed country who speaks no English at all. To maintain the delight of these folks, which his ‘exotic’ presence brings to this rural fishing Lodge, Charlie is forced into a role he’s never played before and ends up exposing his true character. Once shy and unassuming, Charlie transforms into an unsuspecting hero throughout the play. Somewhere between reality and fantasy, he discovers that the role he plays leaves room for the discovery of himself.
Following this exploration of the roles we are forced to play will be Dames at Sea, opening November 8th-17th and directed by John Lane. Dames at Sea is a bombastic parody of ‘30s movie-musicals and takes a look at meta-theatrics in a more literal light, with a story about putting together a Broadway show. If you’ve ever seen a rerun of a classic 1930s musical, you know what to expect from this show; uptempo music, chorus girls, a plucky young woman fresh off the bus with big dreams who falls for an amateur music-writing sailor, the works. With the usual themes of love and making dreams come true, the parodying of the genre make for a comical look at the ridiculousness of musical theatre. This show promises to be a finger-snapping, the foot-tapping answer to some of the more absurdist plays the Red Masquers are offering up this season.
Next to look out for will be the Anton Chekhov classic, The Seagull, directed by Nancy Bach Love and to run December 5th-9th. As an examination of the romantic and artistic lives of the characters, The Seagull ponders the lines between art and love, while also questioning the self and how an artist may be self-aware in their own work. This show opens with a play being put on in an estate somewhere in the Russian countryside, and the weaving of lovers, affairs, longing, and heartache link the artists’ dreams of stardom and success with their shortcomings in reality. In this naturalistic view of the characters and the absurd world in which they live, unrequited love, unfulfilled art, and a very unfortunate seagull all mix together in this Chekhov comedy, begging us to question the reason we fall in love at all.
We then move to Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author directed by Ashley Collette Brown and running February 14th-24th. Here, we experience the very inception of a play brought to life; people claiming to be characters in an unfinished play bring their show to a director, asking for someone to finish writing their show. Like the brainchild of a writer begging for the characters to finish his piece, so he doesn’t have to, Six Characters blurs the lines between what has been established as fantasy and reality in the world. Though the characters are merely musings of a lost writer, they take ownership of their world and refuse for anything less than exact realism, which is humorous as the metatheatrical piece is anything but realistic. A ridiculous look at the absurdity of absolute realism, this show will leave you questioning the nature of what we perceive as real.
Closing the season will be A Little Night Music also directed by John Lane, running April 4th-14th. With Stephen Sondheim at the helm of this musical, it’s no surprise it features a massive score as well as a large cast of quick-witted and complicated characters. This play takes to task a similar theme as The Foreigner, about the ways we go about finding our authentic selves, though with the added panache of having metatheatrical performances ingrained in the story. Betrayal fuels this show, spurred by Desirée Armfeldt, an aging actress who no longer receives the spotlight she continues to crave. Set in turn of the century Sweden, A Little Night Music tells the story of how desire and regret shape our lives, with the gorgeous music of Sondheim to stitch together the poignant hilarity and woe of the characters.
John Lane, who will be directing both musicals for the upcoming season, described one benefit to delving into the world of metatheatrical theatre being its breadth of work, saying that, “interpreting this theme allowed us to select a wide variety of shows. The Foreigner is a contemporary, American farce. Dames at Sea is a parody/homage of 30’s musicals with lots of tap dancing. The Seagull is classic Chekhov who has a realistic genre all to himself. Six Characters is a prime example or the Existential Absurdist movement. A Little Night Music is Stephen Sondheim, no more needed to be said about that! So, we have a wide variety of styles and genres of shows all thematically tied together.”
All of the Red Masquers’ shows will be located at the Genesius Theatre and will be performed Thursday through Saturday at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm. You can find tickets as well as an email subscription to keep updated on this season through their website duqredmasquers.com
Categories: Feature