Arsenic and Old Lace

Arsenic and Old Lace is a delightful comedy that is playing at The Fitzpatrick Main Stage of the Berkshire Theatre Group in Stockbridge, MA  until August 19. This is a play that has been popular over the years  on stage, film and television. However, nothing equals seeing it onstage. The title and the poster gives one an idea of what they are to experience. However,  one needs to be at the theatre with fellow audience members of a range of ages to see how a comedy written seventy-eight years ago can still generate laughs and a good time. As always when we see theatre, Bob and I talk about it on the way home. We continued our discussion once at home. Click on the link below to hear some of our thoughts.

Arsenic and Old Lace Discussion

Check the website below for tickets and information about other plays.

 

Berkshire Theatre Group website

 

 

 

Taking Steps

Taking Steps by Alan Ayckbourn plays at the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage at Barrington Stage in Pittsfield until August 5. As Julie Boyd, Artistic Director of Barrington Stage, noted when she introduced the play, “Sometimes it is just good to laugh.”

In the play an assortment of characters find themselves in an old house the owner is eager to sell. This house has three floors. all of which are represented on a flat stage while the actors go up and down the stairs in front of us. Not those stairs suspended above the stage, but those the characters and the audience create together. As happens in Ayckbourn’s plays, life is not  smooth as misunderstandings are complicated by the knowledge that the house is supposedly haunted by a ghost from the days when the house had been a brothel.

Listen to our brief discussion of the play, by clicking below.

Discussion of Taking Steps

Then click on Barrington Stage’s website to order tickets for an afternoon or evening of laughter.

Barrington Stage Website

Then listen to the playwright by clicking on the photo below.

 

Baskerville

Baskerville will be playing at the Dorset Theatre Festival until July 29. Based on the novella by Arthur Conan Doyle, this is a play to delight Sherlockians and non-Sherlockians alike. Most people have seen a version of this story in film or on television.  However, this is a unique interpretation that will keep you laughing as you enjoy the remarkable actors who transform before your eyes with a switch of hats or accent. Five actors play forty roles and there is a woman playing Holmes.

We interviewed the three  actors who play a multiple of roles. Caitlin Clouthier, Raji Ahsan and Brian Owen. Listening to them talk about what is involved in doing these quick changes is enlightening. Seeing them doing it is wonderful.

 

Raji Ashan (Actor 2), Brian Owen (Actor 1), Liz Wisan,(Holmes) Caitlin Clouthier (Actress 1) Dave Quay (Watson)

 

Listen to the interview by clicking on the link below. Then click on the link to the Dorset Theatre Festival website and order your tickets.

Interview with Baskerville actors

Dorset Theatre Festival Website