Description

In Search of a Common Language

This Summer, Bellingham Theatreworks will produce three award winning and thought-provoking plays written by authors who explore how language can both set us apart and bring us together. 

Audience members will experience the intimacy of being in the round at the Firehouse Arts and Events Center, sitting with the actors while they explore a hilarious satire, a lyric look at the past, and a heartfelt comic hug. All three plays have multiple scenes where the characters desperately want to communicate with each other but are faced with a language barrier. This summer’s offerings promise to explore how language is deeply aligned with culture and identity, and how it can lead to unexpected interpersonal challenges.

Our company combines many members of the community: students and educators, parents and children, as well as guest artists from far beyond Bellingham Bay, all working together to bring these three plays to life.

The Foreigner by Larry Shue, Directed by Mark Kuntz

In a fishing lodge in rural Georgia, a tragically shy proofreader for a science fiction magazine tries to hide from life, only to put himself in the middle of a family squabble over money and power. This hilarious comedy earned multiple Obie and Outer Critics Circle awards as Best New American Play and Best Off-Broadway Production.

The Language Archive by Julia Cho, Directed by Cara Phipps

George is consumed with preserving and documenting the dying languages of the world.  At home, however, despite all the languages he speaks, words fail him in his marriage with his wife.  This heartfelt bittersweet comedy won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for new plays.

Translations by Brian Freil, Directed by Kayla Adams

A British soldier falls in love with an Irish peasant girl, with a backdrop of the British Army’s campaign to change the names of native Gaelic locations. This lyric play explores language as the soul of a nation, during a time of complicated social upheaval.

All plays run in repertory beginning June 24 and will continue 6 nights a week for 4 weeks.   The entire season schedule with ticketing and attendance information, as well as complete descriptions of the plays and information about all of the artists, can be found at www.BellinghamTheatreWorks.org.