Apollinaire Serves Up Chaos and Control with Witty ‘Lunch Bunch’

January 2, 2024January 2, 2024 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Cast of Apollinaire’s ‘Lunch Bunch’. Photos by Danielle Fauteux Jacques

‘The Lunch Bunch’ – Written by Sarah Einspanier; Directed by Danielle Fauteux Jacques; Scenic & Sound Design: Joseph Lark-Riley; Lighting Design: Danielle Fauteux Jacques; Presented by Apollinaire Theatre Company Chelsea Theatre Works, located at 189 Winnisimmet St., Chelsea, MA through January 21

by Mike Hoban

What do you do when the stress of your thankless job drives you to the brink of madness every single day? You could drink like a fish and do boatloads of cocaine like the brokers in Wolf of Wall Street, or there’s always the healthier options of meditating, doing yoga, getting a therapist, or working out. Or you could try a third option: engage obsessively in a ritual that gives you the illusion of control over your chaotic and unpredictable life. The latter is the route that the characters in Apollinaire’s production of the Lunch Bunch have taken, and while it works just about as well as you would suspect it would for the characters, this very funny sendup of foodie culture is a great stress reliever for audiences.

Cristhian Mancinas-García, Alex Leondedis

Apollinaire Theatre Company Shows Us ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’

November 24, 2021November 25, 2021 michaelhobanLeave a comment

*Cast of* *‘The Importance of Being Ernest’* *by Apollinaire Theatre Company at the Chelsea Theater* (*Photos by Danielle Fauteux Jacques*)

by James Wilkinson

‘The Importance of Being Ernest’ – Written by Oscar Wilde. Directed by Danielle Fauteux Jacques. Musical Direction/Sound Design: David Reiffel. Costume Design: Elizabeth Rocha. Scenic Design: Marc Poirier. Dialect Coach: Christopher Sherwood Davis. Produced by Apollinaire Theatre Company at the Chelsea Theater, November 19-December 19, 2021

Apollinaire Theatre’s The Importance of Being Ernest is a stately affair. The cucumber sandwiches are cut neatly into precise triangles with the crust removed. The porcelain tea sets sparkle under the stage lights. The hats come with a variety of plumage and sit atop actors who have been upholstered into their costumes, (quick shout out to costume designer Elizabeth Rocha, whose period work is excellent). The mood is loose and silly without ever tumbling into full-on goofy territory. Without question, it manages to do absolutely everything you expect an Oscar Wilde play to do. I’ll confess to walking into the show hoping to see the creative team take a bigger swing on the material but getting distracted by the show that could have been does a disservice to the charms of the show that’s in front of you. There’s a good-heartedness to the production. You feel warm toward the endeavor. We’re not being sold anything. It’s not making any promises it can’t fulfill. The actors on stage are working as honestly as they can and offering up their best. “Let’s just have a laugh at frivolous things and have some fun,” they seem to be saying. Indeed, why not? It may appear a small matter, but it’s a kernel of an idea reminding us why we go to the theater in the first place.

Apollinaire Theatre Company’s ‘Hir’ Throws It All Out There

March 3, 2020 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Cast of Apollinaire Theatre Company’s ‘Hir’

Review by James Wilkinson

Hir – Written by Taylor Mac. Directed by Brooks Reeves. Scenic and Properties Design: Ilona Overweg & Kevin McGrath. Costume Design: Elizabeth Rocha. Lighting & Sound Design: Christopher Bocchiaro & Robin Donovan Bocchiaro. Produced by Apollinaire Theater Company at Chelsea Theater Works, February 14-March 8, 2020.

Apollinaire Theatre Company’s production of Taylor Mac’s Hir is a disorienting piece of work, (I think this is mostly by design, so stick with me). From the moment the stage lights come up, the world feels off kilter and I think that the audience can smell it. It pushes them onto unsteady ground. When we go to a narrative drama, we’re often looking at how and why characters change over a period of time. With Hir, the change has already happened, leaving the rest of us to get up to speed with them. It’s as though we’ve caught these characters with their hands already half-way into the cookie jar and as they proceed to empty it out in front of us they keep assuring us, “don’t worry about it…this is fine…just don’t worry about it.” Is it though? I guess that’s up to us.

A Powerful Urge to Communicate in Apollinaire’s ‘The Christians’

February 18, 2019February 18, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

By Deanna Dement Myers

‘The Christians’, written by Lucas Hnath. Directed by Brooks Reeves. Music Direction & Sound Design: David Reiffel; Design: Danielle Fauteux Jacques; Set Design: Joseph Dunn; Stage Manager: Maurine Heberden; Assistant Stage Manager: Jaime Hernandez. Presented by the Apollinaire Theater at the Chelsea Theater Works, 189 Winnisimmet St., Chelsea through March 9.

“Build your hope on things eternal”

A Charismatic white man, with an open, kind face, shakes hands and connects with the audience, bringing us into his personal space. A young man of color works the crowd coming from the opposite direction. Other leaders take their places on the stage, flanked by microphones. An excellent choir, made up of people of all genders, abilities and races, files in singing hymns that have us clapping, eager to hear the words of wisdom that have brought us all to the Chelsea Theater Works cum pews a nondenominational megachurch. We become the flock, and with familiarity born of years of weekend services, settle in to watch the action unfold.

Two Mile Hollow: Family Drama with an Edge

December 27, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Review by James Wilkinson

‘Two Mile Hollow’ – Written by Leah Nanako Winkler. Directed by Danielle Fauteux Jacques. Stage Manager/Choreographer Robin Mackey. Scenic Design: Nathan K. Lee. Costume Design: Susan Paino. Sound Design: David Reiffel. Presented by Apollinaire Theatre Company at Chelsea Theatre Works December 21, 2018-January 20, 2019.

The family patriarch is dead. In life, we’re told, he was a great man, but now he’s gone. The only physical likeness that we’ll get of him are the photographs that hang on the walls of the family homestead. His descendants and widow have descended upon the home to divide his possessions between them. In the process of gathering these family members together, secrets are revealed, passions erupt and long-held grudges bubble to the surface. If this sounds familiar, it should. American playwrights from Eugene O’Neil, Tennessee Williams, Horton Foote, Sam Shepard, Tracy Letts and others have all been riffing on this general scenario in one form or another since the dawn of twentieth-century theatre. The gathering of disparate family members has become one of those boilerplate situations playwrights keep offering their own take on. It’s done partly because the scenario is perfectly designed for generating conflict, but it makes you wonder, what do audiences get out of it? Perhaps watching the explosions on stage confirm for us a sense of dread that’s felt if you get enough of your family members gathered in the same room, the feeling that this whole thing could go to hell at any moment.