Double Header: Swept Away and (Re)Dressing Miss Havisham

Scene in Boston has a double header for you this week with two really special episodes.

First up: Drawn to the Water: Swept Away and How Boston Stages Stories of Life at Sea (Apple, Spotify, or find the episode below). We dive into SpeakEasy Stage Company’s production of Swept Away, the folk-rock musical inspired by the music of The Avett Brothers, and explore why stories of the sea continue to hold such power on Boston stages. Director Jeremy Johnson and scenic designer Janie E. Howland join us to talk about building a world at sea, the emotional pull of survival stories, and what makes maritime storytelling feel so deeply tied to New England identity.

Listen in particular for our conversation about a broader wave of current productions that center male and non-binary ensembles and more vulnerable depictions of masculinity.

Then: Inside the Making of (Re)Dressing Miss Havisham: Miranda Jonté on Solo Performance, Literary Adaptation, and Boston Playwrights Theatre’s New Play Incubator (Apple, Spotify, or find the episode below). Actor Miranda Jonté joins us to unpack the challenge and thrill of carrying a one-person show, reimagining a classic literary character for contemporary audiences, and developing new work inside one of Boston’s most important spaces for emerging plays and playwrights.

Swept Away closes May 23, so you have just a few days left to catch SpeakEasy Stage Company’s production. (Re)Dressing Miss Havisham opens May 19 and runs through May 23 at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. Not covered in these episodes, but also worth your attention is Something Rotten at Lyric Stage. That show runs through June 7. Seeing it a few weeks ago reminded me how good it can feel to sit in a theater full of people simply having a great time together. The audience was fully along for the ride, tweens to grandparents! This is your reminder — or maybe your gentle push — to get out to the theater this week.

We’re also looking ahead to My Home on the Moon at Boston Center for the Arts, and In Old Age, the next installment in Ufot Family Cycle at Central Square Theater. And two more recently-announced shows just caught my eye: BROAD STROKES with Cat Cohen is in Boston before its off-Broadway premiere June 4-6 and Thru Hike the Musical is doing a workshop production May 28-June 7. Earlier this season we covered what it means to produce a workshop production and what it takes to bring a play to life. There’s an enormous range of work happening across the city right now, and some of these runs will be over before you know it.