Kansas Classical Repertory Theatre (KCRT) is dedicated to bringing professional theatre to greater Lawrence. With a company consisting of Equity actors, students from nationally recognized training programs, and members of the KU Department of Theatre, our mission is to produce two shows in rotating rep, as well as a laboratory piece, according to the related themes fo translation and adaptation. Our inaugural season offers one fo Shakespeare’s earliest comedies (The Comedy of Errors) and its musical adaptation, Rodgers’ and Hart’s The Boys from Syracuse. We will also workshop an English translation o fGabriel Garcia Marquez’s Balthazar’s Marvelous Afternoon, which will be done as part of our experimental lab.

Our two main-stage productions, though similar in content, are strikingly distinct in form. Whereas Commedia dell’arte—and to a lesser extent, Vaudeville—are the inspirations for our productions of The Comedy of Errors, Victorian Steampunk contextualizes The Boys from Syracuse. The Shakespeare will use such commedia techniques s physical bits (lazzi), sound affects (including a slapstick, which originated with commedia), and live music to present the madcap absurdity that constitutes The Comedy of Errors. For Rodger’s and Hart’s musical, the world is defined by the British Musi Hall Tradition. A tale of two sets fo identical twins separated as infants during a shipwreck some twenty-five years prior to the play’s outset, Shakespeare’s comedy of mistaken identity is itself an adptation of Plautus’ Menaechmi (Twin Brothers), penned c. 200 BCE. Thus, we invite you to experience both productions as part of a repertory consisting of two distinct adaptations of a tale that is more than 2000 years old.

KRCT Press Release

A Doll’s House is also very much about social class and the pursuit of economic freedom. While this theme is oftentimes overlooked, it undergirds and shapes the lives of each character. Helmer is buoyed by his newfound status as a bank manager and the “good salary” that comes with it, Mrs. Linde and Krogstad are desperate for employment, Helene and Ann Marie are dutiful servants whose livelihoods depend on doing their jobs to satisfaction, and of course Nora’s predicament regarding “the forgery” is rooted in financial dealings. Even the whimsical Rank offers every indication of enjoying his comparatively privileged upper-middle class station in society.  Thus, status and the procurement of money are jointly central to the play’s relationships and each character’s need to manage the social, economic, and moral forces of late-19^th century Europe.

In capitalizing on the play’s structure and sociocultural themes, we have set our production in the period of Ibsen: Norway c. 1880. When A Doll’s House premiered in 1879 it was met with controversy and furor. In departing from the melodramatic stage conventions of the time, Ibsen crafted a searing portrayal of domestic life in Modern Europe. The realistic writing style he introduced, thereby rendering him the so-called “father of modern drama,” caused vitriolic responses from audiences and critics alike. Unlike his earlier social dramas like The Pillars of Society, he pulled no punches and crafted an ending that was as poignant and disturbing as it was perceived to be outrageous and triumphant. As such, the play’s signature “door slam heard around the world” still has relevance for us some 135 years later.

Our actor-driven production consists of an ensemble of nine undertaking multiple characters, five of which are double and/or triple cast. With a simple stage consisting of a 16 x 20 foot platform sparely set with 3 tables and 6 chairs, our troupe will deploy the theatre’s most distinctive resource, the power to suspend disbelief, as we assume a range of lives that extends from childhood to dotage within circumstances that are as familiar as they are poignant. It is in this context that—to borrow from Shakespeare—we humbly ask that you “Let us upon your imaginary forces work.”

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