The Langham Court Theatre is offering a wide range of plays for the upcoming season, including a story of a group of tap dancing adults and a historical drama about the transportation of women in the 1800s.
The theatre, current in its 87th season, has chosen six very unique and different plays to captivate theatre goers.
The first half of the season (from September to December) includes You Can't Take It With You, which was recently revived on Broadway, about a man from a family of rich snobs who becomes engaged to a woman from a good-natured but eccentric family. The second play is Doubt, which was turned into a film starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman, about a Catholic school principal raising questions about a priest's ambiguous relationship with a troubled young student.
The second half of the season kicks off with Stepping Out, a comedy about a group of adults who study tap dancing, while Escape from Happiness, a Canadian play, is a sequel to Better Living, that was performed on stage at Langham Court a few years ago. She Stoops to Conquer is also on the list.
“We want to satisfy our long-time subscribers and people who have been to Langham Theatre for many years and have come to expect a certain type of play,” said Wendy Merk, production co-chair.
“But we also want to attract new people into the theatre, so we try to come up with some more cutting edge material. There's something to attract everybody.”
One of the more edgy and new plays is Female Transport a historical drama about the first group of six female convicts who are transported from England to Australia to serve out their term in the 19th century.
“It's got some strong roles for women, it's a little bit different than other plays that we have done before,” said Lorene Cammiade, planning production co-chair, adding that the play calls for some younger female actors as well.
Casting for the one-act play will begin in the fall and director Montgomery Bjornson already has some big ideas for the play he describes as “gritty” and “bringing a piece of history to life.”
“The grand vision is that the audience walks on to ship with the rest of the inmates and the crew and nobody leaves,” said Bjornson.
“The audience is there enduring the smells, the roar of the ocean, the extreme darkness of living in a cell beneath the ship and the length of the voyage along with the actors on the stage. It's a show in which the audience will experience everything that the actors are experiencing.”
The season begins in the fall and runs until June.