Now through September 4
It has been too long a while since we've seen a play by Joan Ackermann at Shakespeare & Company, so the current staging of her literate new work, The Taster, at Founder’s Theatre, is particularly welcome. The play is a tale of two eras intertwined not only by a cast that plays parallel roles in both periods, but also by common themes, a clever, detailed set that does double duty, and a bit of mystical slippage from one century to the other. Tom O’Keefe plays Henry, an investment banker whose life was upturned by the financial crisis, married to Claudia, an opera singer, whose paltry wages are now the couple’s sole income. Henry’s relief from despondence comes from translating an obscure Basque play set in the 16th century that tells the story of King Gregorio, his taster, and his queen, with whom he has failed to produce an heir. O’Keefe is convincingly melancholy as Henry and mercurial as Gregorio. Berkshire audiences familiar with Maureen O’Flynn for her roles in local opera productions will be happy to know they will hear her sing as both the modern-day wife and as Queen Mariana. The star of this production is Rocco Sisto as the taster; he is a joy to watch in every moment onstage and his appearance as a nutritionist in one all-too-brief present–day scene brightens the proceedings. Ackermann’s oft-times poetic script is full of details about poisons, botanicals, and Basque language and lore, even as it avoids coming off like an anthropology or science lecture. Shakespeare & Company, Founders' TheatreLenox, MA
