If Seattle’s Independent Bookstore Day wasn’t enough for you, theaters around the area are offering plenty of literary-inspired plays — or at least inspired by storytelling, from Japanese animation to classic horror.
‘Journey of the Wind’
May 3 to 18 at Theatre Off Jackson
Partners Jet City Improv and Pork-Filled Productions’ fantastical improv show is in the spirit of East Asian animation and storytelling. I think it’s safe to say that the team was thinking a lot of a certain studio that rhymes with Bibli. Improv is usually framed as humor, but “Journey to the Wind” promises much more.
‘Shakespeare Up Close: Ages of Being’
May 3 to June 22 at a private residence in Capitol Hill
I need to see this 12-person-audience, innovative take on Shakespeare. New City Theater has been putting up daring productions in the city since 1982, and the company is doing something new and wild yet again. Co-founder Mary Ewald will be opening up the Bard’s work by recontextualizing speeches and sonnets about what it means to age.
‘2024 New Works Festival’
May 9 to 19 at 18th & Union
The Shattered Glass Project’s 2024 New Works Festival’s shows are all by women and nonbinary playwrights and directors, as Shattered Glass Project focuses on lifting up theater artists who have been marginalized on the basis of their gender or sex. “The Uterine Files,” “Carmilla,” “On the Train” and “Out of Time” are all wildly different and yet align by giving time in the spotlight to some lesser and better known stories, from the original “mother of the modern monster” to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.
‘Unrivaled’
May 10 to June 2 at Seattle Public Theatre (SPT)
Have you heard of Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon? These 11th-century ladies-in-waiting wrote some of the most famous classics in Japanese literature, including “The Tale of Genji” and “The Pillow Book,” respectively. On top of that, according to co-producers SIS Productions and SPT, they “kind of hated each other.” Historical plays showcasing the truism that people are people no matter when they were alive are my favorite kind.
‘Sherlock Holmes and the Precarious Position’
May 15 to June 15 at Taproot Theatre
No matter what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wanted, Sherlock Holmes will never die. In this play based on various Holmesian mysteries, four actors will play myriad characters. Well, that’s what the website says, but it seems like Nathan Brockett and Sophia Franzella might be doing the bulk of character swapping. The preview photos alone crack me up — especially how Franzella manages to completely vanish into different roles. More silly Sherlock, please!
Henry Behrens is the Arts Editor of Real Change. They handle the arts coverage and design the weekly print paper. Contact them at [email protected].
Read more of the May 8–14, 2024 issue.