NURSE! Comes to Players' Ring Theatre This Month

NURSE! was inspired by actress/Brooklyn Theater fire survivor Kate Claxton’s historic lecture tour. Deprived of her sole source of income, Juliet’s Nurse must travel to any venue that will have her, to share her eyewitness account of events familiar from Shakespeare’s tragedy, and in so doing, correct the record regarding “the greatest love story ever told.”

Written and performed by Ayun Halliday and directed by Spencer Kayden, NURSE! is delivered in a bawdy mix of modern English and Fauxlizabethan. It is a mostly comic meditation on love, death, aging and teenagers.

Show times are Friday, Sept. 27, and Saturday, Sept. 28, at 7:30 p.m. - followed by an informal meet & greet with the Artist; Sunday, Sept. 29 at 2:30 p.m. - followed by a talk-back with the Artist.

“When Ayun reached out to talk about NURSE!, we were so excited!” said the Players’ Ring Producing Director Margherita Giacobbi. 

“Being able to host a new work by such an accomplished, clever and totally original creator and artist like her, is an opportunity not to be missed. Ayun is also a warm and fun human being, and I think our audience will love to meet her and find out more about her work during the post-show discussions!”

Halliday, author, illustrator, performer and co-founder of Theater of the Apes with her husband, Greg Kotis, gave the Ring her perspective on the play.

“My kids and I were on a tour of Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, led by their spellbinding, in-house historian,” Halliday recounted.

“Kate Claxton is buried there. I had never heard of her, but her story captivated me, partly due to some apocryphal tidbits that ultimately didn’t check out, but nonetheless hooked me.”

A couple of years later, Halliday realized she had aged out of most of Shakespeare’s female roles... except for the best one – the Nurse.

She said people respond to the Nurse “because she’s funny, and she hasn’t forgotten what it means to be young. I can be down with that!”

“Kate Claxton gave the people what they wanted, what they still want – harrowing, detailed eyewitness descriptions of a tragedy,” Halliday said. “The NURSE! has a similarly up-close perspective, and like Kate Claxton, very few other talents and connections to leverage.

“I wanted to make a project I could perform all over the English-speaking world for the rest of my life,” she said. 

“Having worked extensively with teenagers, I had a lot of thoughts about youth, aging, love, sex, and the comparative brevity of life, and NURSE! is an attempt to articulate them. I’m very proud of my aging brain for memorizing 70 minutes’ worth of lines.”

The Ring has hosted developmental readings of Halliday’s husband Greg Kotis’ post-apocalyptic bluegrass chamber musical, “The End of All Flesh,” in which Halliday plays Ma, a character very similar to the Nurse in terms of her pragmatism and warm feelings toward teenagers.

 “They’re both older women rejecting the mantle of societal invisibility,” Halliday said.

On her previous visits, Halliday was excited to discover the Players’ Ring’s patrons of all ages listening carefully, thinking deeply about the plays they see there, and being unabashed in their eagerness to engage with the creators.

Halliday’s plays include “Fawnbook,” “Zamboni Godot” and “The Mermaid’s Legs,” in addition to the hundreds of short plays she wrote and performed in as a member of the NeoFuturists in the 1980s and ‘90s. She is also the author of nine books, including “Creative, Not Famous: The Small Potato Manifesto.”

Director Kayden originated the role of Little Sally in “Urinetown the Musical” (Tony, Drama Desk, Lortel nominations, Outer Critics Circle, Theatre World award winner). She also appeared on Broadway in “Don’t Dress for Dinner” (Tony nomination, Outer Critics Circle award winner). 

Along with the inimitable Halliday, Spencer was an ensemble member of the Neo-Futurists, writing and performing 30 plays in 60 minutes in “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind.”

The Players' Ring is grateful for the support of its Main Sponsors: 

The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, The Eppes-Jefferson
Foundation, The Puddle Dock Restaurant, Tour Restaurant, Southport Printing Company, Meredith Village Savings Bank, MacEdge and Supporting partners: Portsmouth Recreation Department, Port City Makerspace, Business Cents, Dowling HVAC and Media Partners: PortsmouthNH.com and the Chamber Collaborative of Greater Portsmouth.

The Ring’s neighbor, The Puddle Dock restaurant, and its sister restaurant, "Tour on Lafayette Road, are both offering a 10% discount on food to Players' Ring patrons. Visit their websites to reserve, and present your ticket when you ask for your check.

General Admission is $18.

This show is not included in the Players’ Ring subscription packages. Visit www.playersring.org for ticket purchases.

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.