Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes
by Yussef El Guindi
directed by Robert Kropf
Wed - Sunday, May 25-June 25
curtain: 8pm - Tickets: $29
Ashraf is an actor who has just received rave reviews for his performance of Hamlet at a struggling theatre in Los Angeles. But he's only earning $200 a week and he's having trouble paying the bills. He needs his big break. A starring role in a Hollywood blockbuster. And that's just what his smarmy agent is offering: a feature film, big money, working for his favorite director, and playing opposite his favorite Tinsel Town starlet. All Ashraf has to do is play the most stereotypically evil, fanatical Islamic terrorist ever to grace the silver screen. JIHAD JONES follows Ahraf as he battles the infamous slippery slope, while hilariously balancing his personal ethics and cultural pride against his professional ambition.
"Struggling actors are always on the look-out for their big break. If one is lucky enough to be 'discovered,' some personal principles might have to be shed during the long and fickle climb to celebrity status. The timeless tale of selling one's soul to the devil is currently being examined at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater's tantalizing and unpredictable season opener ... The New England premiere of 'Jihad' is a timely, provocative and sexy satire that forces the viewer to wonder if the end always justifies the means, especially when fame and riches are on the line." Ellen Petry Whalen - Cape Cod Chronicle
"Fraioli steals the show as a manic madman... Kropf's fast-paced direction and terrific ensemble keep the play from dipping too far into a morality tale." Terry Byrne - Boston Globe
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Boeing Boeing
By Mark Camoletti
directed by Dan Lombardo
July 1 - Aug 1 [no performances July 4 & 11]
Sat, Sun, Mon at 8pm
Sun at 2pm
August 15-31
Mon, Tues, Wed at 8pm
Tickets: $29
Parisian architect Bernard may be the last of the swingin 60s bachelors. When his old school friend Robert arrives, Bernard proudly explains how he juggles the schedules of his three fiancées, all international flight attendants. Unfortunately, a new, faster Boeing jet changes everything and Gloria, Gretchen, and Gabriella start showing up at the same time. Life in Bernard's chic apartment becomes a takeoff of a classic seven-door French sex farce. Boeing was a smash hit in Paris in 1960 and then in London, where it ran for seven years. An Americanized version was a Broadway hit in 2008. This sharp English version makes us rethink our 21st century ideas about multiple partners and female sexuality while we laugh ourselves silly.
"The appeal of "Boeing Boeing" is the very opposite of what you might expect. It's not smutty at all. It's deliciously, deliriously innocent. I haven't felt so much like a child, while watching a sex comedy, since I was, well, a very young child, taken by his mother to the Billy Wilder movie 'Some Like It Hot.'" Ben Brantley, New York Times
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An Ideal Husband
by Oscar Wilde
adapted by Daniel Morris
directed by Todd Olson
Co-production with American Stage Company
Tues - Fri July 12 - August 6
(some variations - click calendar for complete schedule)
curtain: 8pm - Tickets: $29
In this faithful adaptation of the original, just four actors play all of the characters in this Wilde classic, with men playing women and vice versa. Robert Chiltern (the upstanding man of morals) must suddenly confront a scandal from his past - which launched his career and made him a rich man. The personal and public fallout is enormous. The profligate, playboy Goring must save the day and discover his true self. We see the same scandals with politicians today - whether they're packaging junk mortgages or concocting 'financial instruments,' bailouts and golden parachutes! The play is heart-wrenching and tragic in the midst of the Wilde ripostes.
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Bakersfield Mist
a National New Play Network
Rolling World Premiere by Stephen Sachs
directed by Jeff Zinn
a co-production with New Repertory Theatre
Thursday - Sunday, August 11 - September 4
curtain: 8pm - Tickets: $29
Maude Gutman, an unemployed chain-smoking bartender living in a trailer park, has bought the ugliest thrift store painting she could get her hands on as a gag gift. After the painting is rejected, Maude tries to offload it at a yard sale where she learns it might be much more than junk - it just might be the "find of the century," an undiscovered Jackson Pollock painting. When Lionel Percy, a renowned art expert, arrives at Maude's trailer to investigate the painting's potential, the two embark on a fiery debate over class, truth, and what we personally perceive as valuable. Inspired by a true story, this National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere by Stephen Sachs asks, what makes a work of art truly authentic?
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Body Awareness
by Annie Baker
Directed by Robert Kropf
Wednesday - Sunday, September 14 - October 16
curtain: 8pm - Tickets: $29
Set in a small college town in Vermont, the play depicts the tensions that simmer and eventually boil over among its four characters as they gingerly step around one another's tender spots - or, in some cases, cluelessly stomp all over them. Psychological insecurity and physiological instability are the key dramatic elements in Annie Baker's disarming new play. There is potential for an atypical family healing when Phyllis, a
middle-aged Lesbian academic, her formerly married lover, her lover's
21 year-old live-in son and a house-guest/photographer are mutually
affected by an event: "Body Awareness Week" at Shirley State College. (Photo of Kim Epifano and Kathleen Hermesdorf by David Bentley.)
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