Enjoy a creepy Halloween with ‘The Changeling’
BY TAMMY SCILEPPI
No doubt we’re living
in weird times.
And strange times call
for an extra-creepy All
Hallows Eve, filled with
grisly ghost stories.
So, why not make a
deeply disturbing, darkly
comic 400-year-old
Jacobean tragicomedy
of lust, madness, and
murder, part of your
Halloween fun and head
to Astoria and Long Island
City, where you
and your fellow trick or
treaters can experience
a raucous and interactive
Halloween-themed
production of Thomas
Middleton and William
Rowley’s “The Changeling?”
Don’t miss Queensbased
acting company
Rude Grooms’ chilling
revival of the 1622 play
at The Astorian (The
Studio Bar) on Oct.
24-26 and The Plaxall
Gallery (Long Island
City) on Oct. 28-30, at
7:30 p.m. before returning
to The Astorian on
Halloween at 7:30 p.m.
and for a special 10 p.m.
Moonlight Matinee.
Tickets are on sale now
at rudegrooms.com.
“By balancing the
deeply disturbing with
a darkly comedic bite
that hasn’t softened in
the ensuing centuries,
‘The Changeling’ is a
perfect Halloween night
out for those who want
a blood-curdling thrill
that’s still a raucously
fun night out,” said
Rude Grooms actormanager
Montgomery
Sutton, who portrays
the play’s most villainous
character, Deflores.
Calling it a “brilliant
mix of genres that
will appeal as much to
fans of ‘Jennifer’s Body’
or ‘American Psycho’ as
fans of Shakespeare and
Jacobean drama,” he
added, “We’re thrilled
to build on last year’s
oversold run of ‘The
Witch of Edmonton’ at
The Astorian and The
Plaxall Gallery, to conjure
these 400-year-old
ghosts in Queens.”
Associate produced
by Jessica Latour
(Rude Grooms’ “Romeo
and Juliet”), “The
Changeling” plot centers
around protagonist
Beatrice-Joanna
(Clio Contogenis), a
devious young woman
who plots to murder
her fiancé after falling
for another man. She
persuades a gullible
servant, madly in love
with her, but whom she
secretly abhors, to commit
the crime. That act
of violence jumpstarts a
torrent of horrors that
leave no one unscathed.
“Filled equally with
hilarity and depravity,
its dark humor is
remarkably accessible;
Halloween imagery permeates
the play,” said
Sutton, who previously
starred in Rude Grooms’
“Romeo and Juliet.”
The play is brought
to life through sitespecific
performance,
direct audience engagement,
and live music,
and you can be a part of
this haunted Halloween
event in a speakeasy
setting at The Studio
Bar, or in an immersive,
mobile rendition in a
12,000-square-foot art
gallery at The Plaxall.
Costumes are strongly
encouraged.
“All theater of this
period makes the audience
an active participant
through direct
engagement, but the
characters in this play
have even more explicit
audience engagement
than in most plays of
Shakespeare or his contemporaries,”
Sutton
said. “When characters
are at their most conniving
and deceitful, they
involve the audience the
most: this gives a powerful
agency to the audience
as they are not just
witness but party to the
evils that the characters
commit.”
The acting ensemble
includes veterans of
Daniel Kemper, Paulina Tobar, Clio Contogenis, and Deb
Radloff rehearse for “The Changeling.”
the Royal Shakespeare
Company, as well as
other companies.
By bringing their
intimate theatrical
plays out to their audiences
and offering free
or low-cost admission,
Rude Grooms aims to
enrich their community
through cultural
engagement that is accessible
financially,
geographically and artistically.
The company will
return to Astoria Park,
Rainey Park, Queensbridge
Park, and The
Plaxall Gallery in summer
2020, with their
annual free Commons
Series production. In
Photo by Montgomery Sutton
the meantime, they’re
launching a podcast
series called “Shake-
Scene,” that presents
plays of Shakespeare
and his contemporaries
in unabridged form,
recorded in front of a
live studio audience in
Queens.
Until then Queens
residents can check out
“The Changeling.”
Groundling (standing)
tickets may be
reserved for $10 and
reserved seats are
available for $25 to $35
at The Plaxall Gallery
and $15 to $35 at The
Astorian. To buy tickets
or learn more, visit
www.rudegrooms.com.
Tues. & Wed. $1895
1 1/4 lb. Lobster, Clams, and Mussels
Served with Corn on the Cob
and Baked Potato
with Purchase of 2 Cocktails,
2 Wines or 2 Beers
40 TIMESLEDGER, OCT. 18-24, 2019 BT QNS.COM
/www.rudegrooms.com
/rudegrooms.com
/www.rudegrooms.com
/QNS.COM
