Shakespeare & Company: "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" and "Women of Will"

Josh Aaron McCabe and Alexandra Lincoln in Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Photos by Kevin Sprague.
There's activity aplenty in South County as Shakespeare & Company lights its marquee for two events in February. Both are must-see performances.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses
The first is the much anticipated Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Christopher Hampton and adapted from the novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos which opens this week. It is directed by Tina Packer and presented at the intimate Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre from through March 21, 2010.

Love is the ultimate weapon! This wickedly entertaining story of love, sex and betrayal is as sumptuously guilt-inducing as a decadent chocolate you just can't resist. Depicting the devious schemes of French aristocrats on the cusp of the Revolution.

Elizabeth Aspenlieder
Packer directs Elizabeth Aspenlieder, who won the coveted Elliot Norton Award for her tour de force performance in Bad Dates last winter, and Josh Aaron McCabe, most recently seen last fall as Sherlock Holmes (and a host of other characters, both male and female) in the runaway hit The Hound of the Baskervilles. Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) was ahead of its time as a novel in 1782 and it still may be ahead of its time today.

Women of Will
Tina Packer and Nigel Gore.
On February 28, in the Bernstein Theatre, there will be a sneak peek of Women of Will. A true tour de force of performance, discussion, and just a bit of crowd participation, this pla, written by Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer, and directed by Eric Tucker is the much-anticipated, masterful summation of Tina Packer's 40-odd years of deep investigation into all things Shakespeare. Performing with Packer is Nigel Gore.

After years of work, refinement, and workshop performances, Tina is making the world premiere of Women of Will at the Mercury Theatre in Colchester, England this March. For one night only, our audience will get a sneak peek of this remarkable survey here in Lenox—before Tina takes it across the pond.

How did Shakespeare's view of women and the feminine impulse change throughout his career? And what can his 400-year-old insights teach us today about our own lives, as we each figure out for ourselves what it means to be alive?

My colleague Chales Giuliano does a nice advance take on Women of Will and its place in the Shakespeare & Company repertoire. Berkshire Fine Arts

For ticket and specific performance information, visit www.shakespeare.org

Shakespeare & Company is located at 70 Kemble Street in Lenox, MA.
Box office: 413-637-3353
Main office: 413-637-1199

"Bad Dates" Travels to Merrimack Repertory Theatre for a Month

Elizabeth Aspenlieder in the original production at Shakespeare & Company. Kevin Sprague photos, courtesy Shakespeare & Company.

Watch out Lowell - the play may revolve around all her bad dates, but this delightful show is an evening out that will make the boys laugh as much as the girls. They may even catch a few clues! Elizabeth Aspenlieder is about to move in on the Merrimack scene, and she is telling all. Her one woman show, Bad Dates has warmed up the Berkshire's normally frigid winter theatre scene with sell out performances for two months. At yesterday's press conference announcing the 2009-10 season for Shakespeare & Company everyone was delighted to learn that her triumphant one-woman show was getting a run of its own within driving distance of Boston. Now you can see what all the excitement has been about.

The hilariious Theresa Reebock play has its final Lenox performance on March 8, and then Aspenlieder moves to the Merrimack Repertory Theatre from March 19 to April 12 to recreate the role. You can also read a review in Berkshire Fine Arts.

Merrimack Rep's blurb describes it this way:

A hilarious and touching comedy. A single mother with a teenage daughter, a screamingly stressful job, and a collection of 600 pairs of shoes, Haley Walker tries to find love in the big city. Relive her rotten romances as Tibetan Buddhists and even the Romanian mob get in the way of her finding “Mr. Right.” Her story is a love and fashion odyssey that has had audiences across the country rolling in the aisles!

"Do you think this pair matches?"

For the actress the only question remaining is which shoes to take.

Key Info: Merrimack Repertory Theatre has online ticket ordering and is centrally located at the convergence of Routes 3, 93 and 495 in the heart of historic downtown Lowell. If you live in the Boston area, you are probably less than 30 minutes away from what people say is “the best kept secret of the Merrimack Valley.” Merrimack Rep is professional theatre at affordable prices and without the hassle of traffic and parking. For more information you can call them at 978-654-4678.

A Date with Elizabeth Aspenlieder

With New Year's Eve you get a hangover but with Elizabeth Aspenlieder you get laughs. (All photos by Kevin Sprague.)

(My review of Bad Dates is now available at Berkshire Fine Arts. I recommend it highly.)

The Wall Street Journal called her "One of the funniest actresses on the East Coast," causing her career course to change. As one of the regular company members at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts, she spends her summers playing drama and tragedy as well as comedy. But with 2007's Rough Crossing, and this past summer's The Ladies Man, she has honed her gift for making audiences laugh.

Shortly she will assume the identity of Haley Walker, a brassy divorced mom with a teenage daughter, her new starring role in the one-woman tour-de-farce, "Bad Dates."

Aspenlieder makes it feel like Haley is sharing her innermost secrets just with you.

Scheduled for a winter long run from January 9 to March 8, Aspenlieder will have the task of keeping things light and funny during a sometimes dark and dreary season. Written by the immensely gifted Theresa Rebeck, Bad Dates is a sharp-tongued, ironic look at what multi-tasking women have to cope with today.

How do you survive as a single mother and working mom while searching for elusive romance in a devious world? How do you pick shoes to wear from a collection of more than 600? How do you know if you've gone over that invisible line?

It is from the familiarity of these situations that much comedy can be extracted, and watching a recent rehearsal, it is amazing what Haley's daily diary of dilemmas discloses.

Under the firm hand of director Adrianne Krstansky, Haley is always in motion, fussing with her appearance, and fulminating about her latest mishap. Although alone on stage, Haley is constantly monitoring the reaction of her guests. "The audience is having a two way conversation with her the whole time," Krstansky notes, "and is brought into her life in a very personal way."

What David Mamet does for na'er do wells and petty con-men, Rebeck does for the women who date them. "Is sex that much more fun for men than women, that they'd do it with just anyone? That would be one conclusion. The other would be that maybe men don't have enough to think about."

How many pairs of shoes?

You can preview this show by visiting its website and a video blog that Aspenlieder has created for us to enjoy. There is also a "Bad Date Story Contest" in which you are invited to share your horror stories. The first entry is hilarious.

One final note. If you are a Berkshire resident you can get some pretty serious discounts on tickets at Shakespeare & Company, too, many performances are 40% off regular prices. In this case you will pay $21.60 for previews and $28.80 for the rest of the performances.

And here's tip to the guys: if you think this is a show for women, and pass it up, you lose. There is more valuable information about getting dates, and getting, um, results, than you can imagine. Be smart. Go. It will be a good date...for both of you.