Acceptance and Art in A Man of No Importance
Following their 1975 Broadway hit Ragtime, writer Terrence McNally, composer Stephen Flaherty, and lyricist Lynn Ahrens reunited in 2002 for A Man of No Importance, which was produced off-Broadway. Set in 1964 Dublin, it is an intimate, character-driven look at community and acceptance.
While the show is acclaimed, it is infrequently revived. In its area premiere at the Cape Rep Theater (3299 Main St., Brewster), McNally’s stage adaptation of a 1994 film is still timely and relevant.
Shy bus conductor Alfie Byrne (an appealing Anthony Teixeira) shows his passion for art by reading poetry to passengers and directing community theater. The Catholic church shuts down the rehearsal hall because Alfie chooses Oscar Wilde’s Salome, a biblical story that includes attempted seduction and dancing. Is it art, or a “dirty play”?
Flashbacks reveal the path to that clash, as Alfie also struggles with his closeted attraction to men, and his sister (a terrific Jess Andra) is infaturated with waifish newcomer Adele (Violet Finn). Director Art Devine, musical director Scott Storr, and an exemplary ensemble bring gentle humor and emotional heft to a believable community of neighbors navigating love, regrets, and religion. The beautiful, often clever score ranges from introspection to comedy, with the rousing “The Streets of Dublin” as part of a standout turn by Coy Branscum as the charismatic bus driver Robbie.
Teixiera’s poignant delivery of “Love Who You Love” and “Man in the Mirror” particularly resonate in the current wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation. Also topical is the satirical “Books” as Alfie’s sister and butcher Carney — played by Kevin McMahon, a Wellfleet Cultural Council member making an impressive debut — musically question the influence of Alfie’s reading choices.
A Man of No Importance plays through Aug. 5, Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. See caperep.org for ticket information. —Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll
A New Chapter in the Cape’s Theatrical History
Founded earlier this year, the Helltown Players shares its DNA (and several members) with other theatrical organizations on the Outer Cape, including the Truro Playwrights Collective, the Provincetown Theater, and Provincetown Dramatic Arts. But according to its founder and president, Jim Dalglish, its inspiration lies with the Provincetown Players, whose groundbreaking productions of works by writers including Eugene O’Neill in the early 20th century heralded a bold new era in American theater.
Dalglish says that the mission of the collaborative is simpler than those of other local theatrical organizations. “We are a nonprofit that will develop and produce the work of Cape Cod playwrights” exclusively, he says, in contrast to other groups that also produce work by writers from elsewhere.
As part of its inaugural season, the collaborative is producing three staged readings at WOMR (494 Commercial St., Provincetown) this month. Margaret Van Sant’s Portraiture was presented on Friday, July 7. Upcoming readings include Dalglish’s Starkweather on Friday, July 14 and Lynda Sturner’s No Show Baby on Friday, July 21. All three plays were finalists in the 2023 Kaplan New Playwrights/New Plays Competition, sponsored by the Eventide Theater Company in Dennis, which honors work by Cape Cod playwrights. The readings begin at 7 p.m. and are free.
The collective is currently in talks with the Provincetown Theater to stage its first full production — a collection of plays written by its eight trustees — in February 2024 and plans to offer a program of courses, seminars, festivals, and playwriting labs in the future. See helltownplayers.org for more information.
An Outdoor Art Show at Highland House
Eleven artists, including a mix of full-time and part-time Outer Cape residents, are participating in an outdoor group show at the Highland House Museum (6 Highland Light Road, North Truro) on Saturday, July 15, and Sunday, July 16. The show will benefit the Truro Historical Society.
“This event began during the Covid pandemic when activity for the museum and for many artists was challenging,” says Bob Ross, one of the organizers of the show and a participating artist. “We decided to try to hold an outdoor art show sale that would benefit both the museum and the Truro Historical Society. For the first two years, we all wore masks for it — even outdoors. The gods have been kind as far as the weather is concerned, and we’re hoping again that the weather will support this year’s two days.”
The artists have more than their Outer Cape residencies and focus on plein air landscape painting in common. “Most of us have studied with Mary Giammarino, a Vermont artist who has taught on the Outer Cape for many years and who shows at Four Eleven Gallery in Provincetown,” says artist Jeff Blum. “She has been a big influence on and support for many of us.” Other artists in the show include Juliane Balliro, M.J. Canavan, Gary Harris, Susan Pierce, Eric Polli, John Salatte, William Shortell, Linda Turoczi, and Seth Stevens.
The exhibition will be on view from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day. See trurohistoricalsociety.org for information.
Summertime Visions of Waking Dreams
Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play about the spaces between illusion and reality. It’s a fitting title for a current group show at READYMADE (11 Cove Road, Orleans) in which three artists explore a similar liminal sensibility.
Katerina Lanfranco’s colorfully abstracted still lifes and nature scenes hover between pastoral idyll and lysergic fantasy, while Benjamin King filters the traditional landscape genre through a punk lens and reduces its elements — plants, rocks, and bodies of water — into gestural marks and essential forms. Known in the art world for his video and performance pieces in which he critiques structures of power, Brian Whiteley repurposes the vernacular of graffiti and tagging into paintings that collapse the distinction between fine and street art.
READYMADE is the second project on Cape Cod by the New York City-based gallery Freight+Volume, which also oversees DNA Gallery in Provincetown. All three artists in the summer group show are currently participating in a residency at DNA, where they will be working off-site and in the gallery’s studio. The residencies will continue until the end of the month.
There will be a reception for the artists at READYMADE on Saturday, July 15 at 6 p.m., and the exhibition will be on view until July 28. See @readymadegallery on Instagram for information.
Roy Staab’s Art of the Ephemeral
In the years since his first visit to Provincetown in 1992, Roy Staab has made some of the most original and captivating works of art on Cape Cod. Yet his work isn’t exhibited in galleries, much less sold or sought after by collectors.
Instead, Staab works with the most ephemeral of natural materials — grasses, sand, wind, and water — to create his land-art installations in the wetlands of the Outer Cape. He will be teaching a five-session workshop on his practice and techniques at the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill (10 Meetinghouse Road) beginning Monday, July 17. (Editor’s note: after publication, the Indie learned this course has been cancelled, however, the artist will still be visiting and making art in Provincetown as planned.)
Participants in the workshop will collaborate with Staab to create a new, original land-art installation in the tidal estuary of the Pamet River near Corn Hill in Truro, from observing the site to designing and constructing the piece using found natural materials including phragmites, a large perennial reed grass found in wetlands all over the world.
“They are very straight, but fragile,” he says. “The magic is also in the water, which gives isolation and reflection. The works are ephemeral, with a life dictated by the weather, wind, and rain.” His last work on the Outer Cape was an installation in 2017 on the edge of the salt marsh near the breakwater in Provincetown, and Staab says he will stay on the Cape to make another work in Provincetown the week following his workshop at Castle Hill.
Staab has also created installations all over the U.S. (including in his hometown, Milwaukee) as well as in Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Sweden. His own video and photo documentation of his work is in several prominent public collections, including those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Milwaukee Art Museum, and the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College.
The fee for the workshop is $525. See castlehill.org for information. —John D’Addario
