Verge Theater continues its lively season of hilarious antics with some great shows and performances! Here’s a look at what’s happening this month.
Bozeman Actors Theatre, in cooperation with Verge Theater, will present Montana’s first fully staged production of “Marjorie Prime” in February and March at Verge Theater.
The critically acclaimed play by Jordan Harrison, nephew of the late Montana novelist and poet Jim Harrison (Legends of the Fall), completed its successful run Off Broadway in 2015 and was a finalist for that year’s Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Set in the unspecified but oddly familiar future, the story takes place in the household of an average middle-aged couple, Tess and Jon, played by Cara Wilder and Gordon Carpenter, who share their home with Tess’ 85-year-old mother, Marjorie (Dee Dee Van Zyl). Also present is Walter (Ryan Lawrence Flynn), a thirty-something holographic representation, or “prime,” of Marjorie’s late husband, programmed to collect and sort Marjorie’s fading memories. With gentle humor and subtle yet poignant insight, the play confronts issues of aging, death, memory loss, and identity.
“I was fascinated by the themes of the play on my first reading, as it offers food for thought on so many levels,” said Wilder, who is also artistic director for Bozeman Actors Theatre. “It’s spare, simple storytelling tackling some very profound subjects.”
Bozeman Actors Theatre’s mission, Wilder said, is to provide professional-quality and adventurous live theater to the community through a mix of contemporary and classical productions. In November, the group presented a staged reading of Edward Albee’s ageless masterpiece Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at MSU’s Black Box Theatre. Now, with Marjorie Prime, under the direction of Tonya Andrews, the ensemble brings to Bozeman a domestic drama of an entirely different sort.
Wilder added that Jordan Harrison is one of the brightest young playwrights of his generation whose work is especially timely at the moment. Harrison writes for the Netflix original Orange Is the New Black, and Marjorie Prime is the basis for a soon-to-be-released major motion picture starring Lois Smith, Geena Davis, Jon Hamm, and Tim Robbins.
“Marjorie Prime is an exciting new work from an emerging playwright—exactly the kind of theater we enjoy serving up to our community,” Wilder said. “It’s a story told with honesty, heart and humor, and it asks questions that audiences will be pondering long after the lights go down.”
Bozeman Actors Theatre and Verge Theater will present Marjorie Prime as a 2017 Main Stage production at the Verge on Fridays and Saturdays beginning February 24th and running through March 11th, at 8pm each evening. Tickets are $14.
Recover from your weekend with Improv Comedy! Join in as Verge offers up a Monday Night sacrifice of the most daring, death defying type of live theater there is: Improv! They call it Improv on the Verge! Improv Monday Nights feature The Bozeman Improverts who will beguile you with their laser-like wits, sharp tongues, and obnoxiously large heads.
These masterful, main stage players improvise sketches built around audience suggestions, play improv games similar to those you see on Who’s Line Is It Anyway, and perform long form improv that is basically making up short plays on the spot. You have to experience this to believe it! It’s a mere $7 to get in and laugh like hell at this team of S.W.A.T.-trained Improv Players. (S.W.A.T. = SouthWest Alternative Theater). The next show is set for February 27th at 7pm.
Silly Moose Comedy Improv for kids returns! Saturday matinees will run weekly at 2pm through March 4th. Come check out a hilarious, all new show every week that’s fun for the whole family! During each performance, the kids are encouraged to get crazy, shout out suggestions, and become part of the hilarity on stage. Silly Moose Comedy is just like Improv on the Verge, but with a G rating! All tickets are only $7 for an hour of laughs.
For more information about any Verge performances and to purchase tickets, please visit www.vergetheater.com/. Reservations can be made online or in person at Cactus Records in Downtown Bozeman. Verge Theater is located at 2304 N. 7th Ave., across from Murdoch’s, at the extremely hilarious north end of Bozeman. •
