“The Mystery Plays” by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
last reading till fall for the Bold Face Play Readings Series
The secret code here lies in the multiple meanings of the word “mystery.” Aguirre-Sacasa channels everyone from Kafka to Lovecraft to Hitchcock to Capote in this tour-de-force theatrical diptych: two short mysteries hinged together by a character, and more.
“The Filmmaker’s Mystery” comprises the first act, in which horror pix director Joe Manning survives a train wreck, only to be haunted by the ghost of a dead passenger who tried to pick him up. In the second act, “Ghost Children,” Joe’s attorney Abby Gilly is drawn back to her childhood home to make peace with her older brother who, 16 years ago, brutally murdered her parents and sister. Over both intertwined stories hovers the compassionate spirit of the playwright himself. Like the authors of the original medieval “mystery” plays, he wrestles with questions of life, death, faith and forgiveness, but in a uniquely American way. The New York Times called it “irresistible.”
This fourth and final offering in Harbor Light Stage’s spring Bold Face Play Readings Series will be performed on Monday, April 13, at the Kittery Art Association, 8 Coleman Ave., Kittery Point, Maine. Reservations are recommended, and seats must be claimed by 7:15 p.m. for the 7:30 reading. Please note, there will only be one performance for this installment of the Bold Face Play Readings series, which will return this fall with another lineup of bold, intimate and engaging contemporary American works.
Playwright Aguirre-Sacasa is also author of the gay satiric thriller “Say You Love Satan.” Cast for this performance of “The Mystery Plays” include local professional actors Christopher Savage, Dylan Schwartz-Wallach, Colleen Madden, Brian Chamberlain, Susan Poulin and Allan Mayo.
Harbor Light Stage’s summer Maine Stage Series will then offer the world premiere of “Creek Man: The Unbelievable True Story of the Accordion-Playing Merman.” By, about and starring local legend Gary Sredzienski, “Creek Man” is part vaudeville, part autobiography, part history lesson and part aquatic homage. And like its subject, this limited engagement dinner theatre production at the York Harbor Reading Room will be truly one-of-a-kind. Tickets are on sale now.
For more information, including reservations or directions, call (207) 439-5769, email harborlight@bitstream.net, or visit www.harborlightstage.org.