Welcome to what sounds like a director’s nightmare: Not just one or two people but large swaths of the audience turn on their smartphones and tablets and GoPros — or even (shudder) drones — to shoot photos, to tweet, to live-stream real-time video of a stage production on social media.
And yet that’s exactly what Samantha Davidson Green and Richard Waterhouse are inviting Upper Valley theatergoers to do with this weekend’s Parish Players production of Flash Mob Caesar at Eclipse Grange Theatre on Thetford Hill. The show reimagines Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar for our truthy, fake newsy, media-saturated age.
“Shakespeare has a fascination with the audience, pleasing the audience,” Davidson Green, who conceived of the show, said last week. “The theme of the crowd is in many of his political dramas, the flash point where the crowd turns into the mob. I had this vision of a highly interactive Julius Caesar that would awaken us to our power as the crowd.”
Davidson Green, Waterhouse and their cast and technical crew see that power as a double-edged sword in the current civil wars of politics and culture.
“How do we know what and whom to believe?” Davidson Green said. “I think Shakespeare anticipated Twitter, and fully exploited the tactic of fake news to motivate his characters to do what they do.”
While the assassination of Julius Caesar remains at the center of both the original and the adaptation, the political and psychological intrigue leading up to and following the murder drive the plot. Hartford native Allison Brown found this approach both intimidating and irresistible. Brown, now a Burlington-based singer-songwriter, opens the play with a song she wrote about the consequences of assassination, and plays both the prophet Artemidorus and Caesar’s heir as emperor, Octavius Caesar.
“It’s really fun,” Brown said. “It’s really cool. There are some logistical challenges with the way Samantha and Richard are doing it, but thinking about the present-day political atmosphere, it’s amazing to do something so politically juicy.”
Audiences are docile, but mobs are defined by their wildness. The directors can’t speak for what the mobs — uh, audiences — might do.
“It was always an ideal in public discourse, until social media made it a reality, that everybody can have a voice in a democracy,” Davidson Green said. “Under today’s conditions, how do those voices gather into constructive or destructive purposes? Our goal is to blow the walls out. Not just the fourth wall: All the walls.
“I hope it will be different every night.”
The Parish Players stage
Norwich residents Miki Hertog-Raz and Will Ciardelli perform with Circus Smirkus during the Vermont-based teen troupe’s six shows at Fullington Farm in Hanover, from Thursday afternoon through Sunday night. For tickets ($18 to $22) and more information, visit smirkus.com or call 877-764-7587. Tickets also available at Norwich Bookstore.
■Devotees of funk, soul and world music should head to the bandstand at Lebanon’s Colburn Park on Thursday night to hear Bassel & The Supernaturals, during the last gig of the Upper Valley mini-tour by Syrian-American singer-songwriter Bassel Almadani, trumpeter/keyboardist Ben Phillips, bassist Kidd King Kontroverse and drummer Mike Gee. Free.
■South Newbury, Vt., fiddler Patrick Ross and Goshen, N.H., singer-guitarist Tom Pirozzoli join forces at The Livery in Sunapee Harbor on Friday night at 7:30. The Livery also will be exhibiting some of Pirozzoli’s paintings, inspired by the songs on his soon-to-be-released album Reckon by the Light, on which Ross and producer-musician Willy Porter also perform. To reserve tickets ($15) and for more information, visit thelivery.org.
■The Dartmouth Sugarplum ensemble dances to contemporary and modern jazz and jazz-funk on Saturday night at 7:30, at the Aidron Duckworth Art Museum in Meriden. The performers, all undergraduates at Dartmouth College, are sociology major Alex Eyvazzadeh, biology major Amanda Jiang, biology and neuroscience major Ashlyn Morris, English major Jessica Weil and economics major Sammy Goncalves. Admission by donation.
■The Mairzy Doats duo — aka singer and former Norwich resident Ellen Nordstrom and Bridgewater-born pianist Abigail Charbeneau — performs heroine- and femme fatale-centered music from Broadway’s Golden Age on Sunday afternoon at 4, at the President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site in Plymouth Notch, Vt. Admission is free.
Big Fish, Broadway musical adaptation, North Country Community Theatre performances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at Lebanon Opera House. Admission $13.50 to $23.50.
Grease, teen-lust musical comedy set in the 1950s, performances at New London Barn Playhouse Thursday night through Aug. 4. Tickets $20 to $37.
The Doctor and the Dowry, Vermont Suitcase Company’s comedy inspired by the works of Moliere, Sunday afternoon at 4 at Woodstock’s Town Hall Theatre. Admission $5 to $8.
Mayfly, folk/roots, Thursday night at 5:30, during Feast & Field Market at Fable Farm in Barnard.
■ Rastrelli Cello Quartet, compositions ranging from Brahms to the Beatles, Thursday night at 7 at First Baptist Church of New London. Admission $5 to $25.
■Early Risers, folk duo, Friday night at 5:30 on lawn behind North Universalist Chapel in Woodstock. Admission by donation.
■ Cyn Barrette Quartet, jazz, Friday night at 6:15 on downtown Lebanon mall; Never Too Late, folk, Saturday night at 6:15.
■East Bay Jazz Ensemble, Friday night at 6:30 at Haddad Bandstand in New London.
■String duo of Chloe Powell and Justin Park, folk-roots, free concert on Saturday afternoon at 2:30, in art gallery at Green Mountain Perkins Academy in South Woodstock.
■The Pillsbury Slow Boys, roots, Saturday night at 6 at Crossmolina Farm in West Corinth.
■Yankee Brass Band, Saturday night at 6:30 at West Claremont Center for Music and the Arts. Admission by donation.
■Inner Fire District, Yiddish and Balkan folk, Saturday night at 7 at Seven Stars Arts Center in Sharon. Admission $20.
■Beg, Steal and Borrow, monthly bluegrass-brunch concert at Braintree (Vt.) Meeting House, Sunday morning at 11.
■The Fischers and the Jennings, French chamber music by Ravel, Poulenc, Bizet and Faure, Sunday afternoon at 2 at Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park in Cornish. Admission included in $10 entry to park.
■Lydia Gray, jazz, Sunday night at 6 on Strafford Common; Turnip Truck, folk/roots, Tuesday night at 6. Admission to both shows by donation to maintenance fund for Strafford Town House.
■Upper Valley Community Band, Monday night at 7 at Colburn Park in Lebanon.
■Chad Hollister Trio, folk-rock, Tuesday night at 6:30 at Fairlee Town Common.
■The Tim & Dave Show, folk-rock, Tuesday night at 7 at Canaan Town Common.
■Never Too Late, folk-roots, Wednesday night at 6:30 at Lyman Point Park in White River Junction.
■T-Bird & The Buzzards, pop, rock and roots, Wednesday night at 6:30, at Ben Mere Bandstand overlooking Sunapee Harbor.
Nancy Tripp Swing Band, “Dance Under the Tent,” Saturday night at 7 at Courthouse Restaurant in Newport. Call 603-863-8360 for reservations.
Deadgrass, bluegrass inspired by Jerry Garcia, Thursday night at 9 at The Skinny Pancake in Hanover.
■B3 Brotherhood, soul and R&B, Friday night at 8 at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland.
■Don Baze, country-western, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in West Lebanon; Joe Mitchell, rock, Saturday afternoon at 4.
■The Party Crashers and guest singer Emerald, pop and rock, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon; Acoustic Truffle, rock, Saturday night at 7; Ken Macy, country-western-flavored rock, Saturday night at 9.
■Wayne Canney, acoustic rock, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Hanover.
■Chris Powers, acoustic rock, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Newport; Rebel Collective, Celtic folk-rock, Saturday night at 9.
■ Soulfix, danceable soul and jazz, Friday night at 8:30 at Crossroads Bar and Grill in South Royalton.
■Jack in the Pulpit, roots rock, Friday night at 9:30 at Windsor Station; Bow Thayer, roots rock, Tuesday night at 6.
■Guitarists John Stowell and Billy Rosen, jazz brunch, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Courthouse Restaurant in Newport.
■Jim Yeager, rock/funk, Monday night at 7 at Woodstock Inn’s Richardson Tavern.
■Chad Hollister Trio, rock, Tuesday night at 6:30 on Fairlee Town Common.
■Jazz pianist Sonny Saul, Wednesday night at 6:30 at On the River Inn in Woodstock.
Jim Yeager hosts open mics Thursday night at 7 at ArtisTree Community Arts Center; at The Public House Pub in Quechee on Tuesday night at 6; and at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland on Wednesday night at 8.
■Alec Currier’s open-mic at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon, Thursday nights at 8.
■Joseph Stallsmith’s hootenanny of Americana, folk and bluegrass, Monday nights at 6 at Salt hill Pub in Hanover.
■Fiddler Jakob Breitbach’s acoustic jam session of bluegrass, Americana and old-timey music, Tuesday nights at 7 at Filling Station Bar and Grill in White River Junction.
■Tom Masterson’s open mic, Tuesday nights at 7 at Colatina Exit.
■String Band Karaoke, Jes Raymond’s monthly session of roots music, Wednesday night at 6 at The Skinny Pancake in Hanover.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com or 603-727-3304. Send entertainment-related news to highlights@vnews.com.