Rain can’t dampen their enthusiasm
Pressing ahead despite buckets of meteorological discouragement, two local theater companies start outdoor performances next week.
“We view the rain as fantastic,’’ Caleb Jon Magoon of Orfeo Group said Monday, as yet another line of showers swept across the Boston area. “It’s getting it all out of the system now.’’
“We don’t have rain dates. We just have dates and hope for the best,’’ said Danielle Fauteux Jacques, artistic director at Apollinaire Theatre Company.
The Brookline-based Orfeo Group is turning “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)’’ into a summer-long party at Christian Herter Park, on the banks of the Charles River in Brighton, beginning Thursday. The raucous comedy - “37 plays in 90 minutes or less’’ - will be performed in the park’s outdoor amphitheater, preceded most nights by entertainment from other groups, including improv comedy and dance.
And, Magoon said, you should bring burgers and other picnic items: Orfeo will have the grill on.
“We’re going to be out in the park having fun,’’ he said. “The cast is going to be hanging out before the show, we’re going to be grilling our dinner as the audience is filtering in, so we said, ‘Hey, we’re going to have a grill out there anyway, why not invite people if they want to do that?’ ’’ (They’re also organizing a catered picnic offering with the Sunset Grill & Tap in Allston.)
The production, directed by Steven Barkhimer, stars Orfeo members Risher Reddick, Daniel Berger-Jones, and Gabriel Kuttner. And the play’s text, originally written by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield, will be adapted, as usual, to keep it current.
“There’s a section in the beginning where they give a biography of William Shakespeare, only the guy who was supposed to research it has messed it up and . . . somehow confused William Shakespeare’s biography with Adolph Hitler’s,’’ Magoon said. “One of our first ideas was to make that Osama bin Laden’s biography instead.’’
The park is normally home to the Publick Theatre, but that company decided not to put on a summer production to allow for major sound and lighting upgrades at the facility. The Publick was happy, however, to have Orfeo put on its entirely unplugged production, said Magoon.
With no lights, performances begin “around 6:45 p.m.,’’ he said, though the open-ended run means they may have to dial back the start time if performances continue later into August.
Meanwhile on the Mystic River, Apollinaire will unveil a bilingual triptych of short plays, “The Wedding on the Eiffel Tower and other absurdities of love,’’ at Mary O’Malley Park in the company’s home city of Chelsea, starting Wednesday. The program features works by Jean Cocteau, Jean Anouilh, and Eugene Ionesco. And it’s all free.
“We use the park as our theater,’’ said Jacques. “It’s a very interesting location - part lovely countryside, with the lawn and the trees, and then we have the water.’’
Each play will take place in a different location. Anouilh’s “Humulus the Mute,’’ set at a garden party, will be staged on the park’s upper lawn. Ionesco’s “Jack, or the Submission’’ will be performed out on the dock, as Jack is a rebellious son who “feels very trapped and isolated, and it seemed like the most fitting location, where it’s surrounded by water on three sides,’’ said Jacques.
The headlining play, Cocteau’s “The Wedding on the Eiffel Tower,’’ is the “most clearly theatrical’’ of the three plays, she said. It will be performed on a stage-like cement slab behind a small garage in the park. “It’s supposed to be on the first platform of the Eiffel Tower, so doing it on a platform helps give that feeling, and because there’s a building in the back we can paint the backdrop for the play right onto that,’’ she said.
Patrons bring their own lawn chairs or blankets, and after each one-act, house managers will direct them to the next location.
The production is performed in English on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and in Spanish on Friday and Sunday. Weather permitting, of course.
Orfeo Group: Weekend tickets $15, Friday nights free for students, Thursdays free for all. Information: www.orfeogroup.org. Apollinaire: Free. Information: www.apollinairetheatrecompany.com 