This weekend in Room 104 of the Center for Dramatic Art, a human will play a handicapped dachshund.
This wacky feature is just one of many in Neil Wechsler’s play “Grenadine,” which will be staged by LAB! Theatre as their season’s LAB!ratory show.
“LAB!ratory is a more experimental, creative series that uses alternative theater spaces,” said Erin Hanehan, the show’s director, who also works in the Office of the Executive Director for the Arts. “The classroom doesn’t have all the capabilities of a normal space, so we do everything through theatricality.”
“Grenadine” tells the story of a group of four who go on a journey looking for a girl named Grenadine, who never appears in the play. Evan Mitchell plays Prismatic, the one of the four who is deeply in love with Grenadine.
“Prismatic has spent the last three years reading love poetry, and his character kind of embodies that,” Mitchell said. “He has this stereotypical view of love — he thinks it’s just big fancy words. He has to learn that his view isn’t correct.”
Mitchell’s character is also the one who spends the most time with the dachshund, played by Melissa Parker. The text of the play specifies that the dachshund has wheels instead of two back legs.
“To stage that, we’re going to use a little wheeley cart,” Hanehan said. “But we’re asking the audience to use a lot of their imagination.”
Mitchell said that performing with an actor playing a dog presented some challenges, but was ultimately fun.
“At that point in the play, everyone else has left Prismatic behind,” he said. “The dachshund is pretty much his only companion.”
In addition to its inclusion of nonhuman characters, LAB!’s production of “Grenadine” will feature some actors playing roles opposite to their gender. For example, Ashley Avera will play Grove, a male character.
“Grove is very matter-of-fact—his specialty is science,” Avera said. “But at the same time he has this childish naive quality that’s very refreshing.”
The dialogue of “Grenadine” is witty, concise and rapidly paced. Zac Moon, who plays Sconce, said that working with the script requires a high level of attention from the actors.
“It’s at a really fast tempo, and there are a lot of parts that go really quickly back and forth,” he said. “You have to work hard because everything has to keep flowing.”
Hanehan said that though the plot of “Grenadine” is a little crazy, the audience should be able to receive some meaning from it — even though not all of those meanings will be the same.
“The play takes place in a world that’s not our own, and it doesn’t follow the same rules that we have to,” she said. “Each audience member will be able to absorb the story as they see it.”
See “Grenadine” Friday to Sunday at 8 p.m., with an additional show at 4 p.m. on Saturday in the Center for Dramatic Art.
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