A Play About Women and a Viral Treehouse: "Rooted" by WAM in Lenox

May 1–16 | Lenox, MA

WAM Theatre opens its 2026 main stage season with "Rooted," a new comedy by Deborah Zoe Laufer running May 1 through 16 at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theater at Shakespeare & Company. The show had a sold-out reading at WAM last summer and is kicking off its first full production this week.

The play is elevated... Our main character Emery lives in a treehouse, tends her plants, and posts videos about her botanical research online. Her sister Hazel works double shifts at the local diner to keep them both afloat and is considerably less enchanted by this arrangement. When Emery's videos go unexpectedly viral and her followers get increasingly devoted, the YouTube channel tips into something closer to a cult. A third character, Luanne, is searching for something to believe in and finds it beneath the treehouse.

Director Maggie Mancinelli-Cahill has called the three women at the center of the story "complicated, fun, and irascible," and describes getting hooked by a play that is "very funny" while carrying a timely message about human connection and life on the planet. Laufer, for her part, ties the production to the larger political moment, writing that "at a time when women's rights are being stripped away and our need to be heard is so great, theaters like WAM are more vital than ever before."

Laufer is a Juilliard graduate whose plays have been produced at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Everyman Theatre, the Humana Festival of New American Plays, and more. She has received the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, the Lilly Award, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Lincoln Center Foundation. "Rooted" is the second in a loosely connected trilogy set in the Catskills town where she grew up, following "Be Here Now."

Several performances come with extras worth knowing about: the May 2 matinee has a pre-show plant exchange, the May 9 evening show includes a nature walk hosted by the Berkshire Natural Resources Council, and the May 10 matinee pairs with a Mother's Day brunch. A post-show artist talkback follows the May 15 matinee.

Elayne P. Bernstein Theater, Shakespeare & Company, 70 Kemble St., Lenox. Tickets at wamtheatre.com.