Staff Picks
Whether your October vibe skews toward spooky season, sweater season or moody season — thinking big thoughts and staring out of rain-spattered windows — local theaters have something to suit your mood. In addition to the stellar shows listed in our Fall Arts Guide, this month brings plenty of reasons to bust out your raincoat and get to the theater.
“Macbeth: A Rock Musical”
Well well well, if it isn’t the original moody Scottish play, Shakespeare’s bloody tale of witches and kings, complicated marriages and vaulting ambition. Seattle Public Theater, in a coproduction with Macha Theatre Works, spins an “all femme punk rock telling” of this classic tragedy, starring Cristin J. Hubbard as Macbeth and Meg McLynn as Lady Macbeth, and featuring music from local rockers Sherri Jerome, Alicia Healey and Aimee Zoe. Further details are scarce about what to expect from this hard-rock retelling, but one sure thing to prepare for is volume (don’t worry, ear plugs will be provided).
Oct. 13-Nov. 5; Seattle Public Theater, 7312 W. Green Lake Drive N., Seattle; $10-$100; 206-522-4800; seattlepublictheater.org
“Bloodletting”
L.A.-based playwright Boni B. Alvarez takes a sly, magically realistic approach to his spooky tale, a family story full of supernatural powers and Filipino vampires. When siblings Farrah and Bosley return to the Philippines to fulfill their father’s final wish, to scatter his ashes in the underground river in Palawan, they must also sort out their strained relationship. But then they encounter an aswang, a Filipino vampire, who awakes in Farrah an ancient and terrifying power. This should be fun in the hands of Pork Filled Productions, a company whose love of genre always shines through in eclectic programming comprising everything from science fiction and noir to fantasy and steampunk. Zenaida R. Smith directs.
Oct. 19-Nov. 4; Theatre Off Jackson, 409 Seventh Ave. S, Seattle; $10-$50; 206-486-0375; porkfilled.com
“Islander”
Is there a moodier locale than a remote Scottish island? This two-hander, a musical that utilizes looping technology to create a layered sonic tapestry, begins as a mysterious stranger washes up on the shore of the distant, misty isle that a young woman named Eilidh calls home. In a New York Times review of the show’s off-Broadway run, which followed runs at both the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and London’s Southwark Playhouse, critic Alexis Soloski praised the “sweet-natured portrait of characters trying to hold onto a sense of place and home in a threatened world.” This Seattle Rep production kicks off the show’s North American tour.
Oct. 20-Nov. 19; Seattle Rep, 155 Mercer St., Seattle; $42-$79, limited pay-what-you-choose tickets available for every show; 206-443-2222; seattlerep.org
New Works Northwest
For folks who love getting up close and personal with plays and playwrights, things have felt bleak in recent years as closure after closure of playwright-focused programs was announced: The Lark in New York, Louisville’s Humana Festival, Sundance Theatre Lab. So it’s exciting to recommend the inaugural installment of a brand-new new play festival right here at ACT Theatre, showcasing work from local playwrights — a step in the right direction for making this city a place where those artists can thrive.
On the weekend’s docket: “Golden” by Andrew Lee Creech, “Mrs. Loman Is Leaving” by Katie Forgette, “History of Theatre Part II, or, the Fruits of Mr. Brown’s Garden” by Reginald Andre Jackson, “The Sunless Scar” by Maggie Lee and “Vial Man (the Apothecary’s Story)” by Steven Dietz. Each reading will be followed by a short discussion.
Oct. 27-29; ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., Seattle; all tickets are pay-what-you-can; 206-292-7676; acttheatre.org
“Hadestown”
We may know their story’s ending, but that doesn’t make this tale of young lovers Orpheus and Eurydice any less heartbreaking. In this beautifully bleak musical interpretation of Greek myth, “Hadestown” braids that love story with that of another mythic pair: Hades, king of the underworld, and Persephone, his unwilling bride who sends the world into darkness and famine each time she joins him in the underworld.
“Hadestown” began life as a concept album by show creator and composer Anaïs Mitchell, and with the help of director Rachel Chavkin (“Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812”), the 2019 Broadway production, now on the road as a national tour, won eight Tony Awards, including best original score and best musical.
Oct. 31-Nov. 5; Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St., Seattle; tickets start at $40; 206-682-1414; stgpresents.org
More Staff Picks
This story includes updated information on the music featured in “Macbeth.”
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