Find Shakespeare at a brewery, spooky tales, murder mysteries, updated classics and more theater this season

By Michael Witthaus
mwitthaus@hippopress.com

From Fiddler on the Roof to Blithe Spirit, Sister Act and Seussical, the fall theater season has lots of familiar notes. Look closer, though, and there’s a twist. Horror movie musicals, gourmet dining with Poe as a palate cleanser, murder mystery meals, an international tragedy recast for its basic humanity — all are there.

Moreover, these shows are happening in unexpected places, like Tupelo Music Hall, best known for classic rockers and standup comics, but also a hub for the nomadic Lend Me A Theatre company. A musical version of Stephen King’s high school bloodbath Carrie will be performed in an actual gymnasium, a nice touch.

That’s not to say opera houses, glittering theaters, arts centers and playhouses aren’t in on the action. They are, but they’re balanced by offbeat, inventive venues like a historic house in Portsmouth and a former pop-up lemonade stand that’s now a brick and mortar dry bar, not to mention a winery. Here’s a rundown of upcoming performances, grouped thematically.

‘Immersive experiences’

Theatre Kapow is well known for blurring the line between cast and audience in its provocative productions, and an upcoming evening of dinner theater is no different. Attendees should dress up and perhaps wear a mask, but most of all come hungry.

On Oct. 23 the Concord company takes over Gnomies, the dry bar that now occupies the former home of Area 23, for an evening built around four Edgar Allan Poe poems and three of his stories, woven through a menu designed by master chef Susan Reidel.

It’s the first time Theatre Kapow has collaborated on an experience like this, which began with a conversation between Reidel and the company’s artistic director, Carrie Cahoon, a few months ago. “My dream is to have these immersive experiences with food and performance,” Reidel told her.

Recalled Cahoon, “One of us said, ‘Oh, what about Edgar Allan Poe?’ I realized that’s perfect.”

The roughly two-and-a-half-hour evening will have actors performing from all four corners of the room as the meal unfolds in courses. Cahoon, who is directing but not performing, has spent weeks living inside Poe’s language before rehearsals even start.

“It’s just such a wonderful physical experience to say it,” she said. “It’s so expressive and so powerful, and really does set this macabre, creepy, dark tone.” The stories, she’s quick to note, aren’t relentlessly grim — Poe’s social satire gets room to breathe, even as, true to form, almost nobody survives to the final course.

The masquerade element was Reidel’s idea, and Cahoon quickly embraced it.

“That brings you into it in a whole other way and really helps create the mood,” she said. It’s not a haunted-house jump-scare kind of dark, she’s careful to add, but something more elegant — a “dark night” with “a storm coming.”

The language is more American than most people assume; Poe, despite his gothic reputation, was born in Boston. It’s a great way to pull audiences out of their seats and into the room and, timed to Halloween, it’s a one-night experiment that could easily become a tradition.

Here are more shows in this vein:

• As Time Goes By

The Players’ Ring ( Players’ Ring Theatre, 105 Marcy St., Portsmouth) Tickets: $33 at playersring.org. When: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m., through Sunday, Oct. 11. A blend of retro nostalgia, mad-science time travel, and comic chaos that mashes up Leave It to Beaver, Back to the Future and Groundhog Day through looping timelines, baffled lovers, cosmic frustration and surrendering to the inevitable. Written by G. Matthew Gaskell, directed by Jamie Bradley.

• Majestic in Wonderland

Majestic Theatre (Majestic Studio Theatre, 880 Page St., Manchester) Tickets: $25 per person, $45 per couple, at majestictheatre.net. When: Friday, Sept. 25, and Saturday, Sept. 26, at 6:30 p.m. 21st Annual Auction & Performance Fundraiser, with the company’s Adult, Teen, & Youth actors performing along with the Ted Herbert Music School Faculty & Students and special guests. Silent auction prizes include tickets and passes to art and cultural venues, electronics, gift baskets, dining gift certificates, art and more. Special themed raffles, and refreshments each evening.

• Soap Opera (Episode 5)

New Hampshire Theatre Project (West End Studio Theatre, 959 Islington St., Portsmouth)When: Wednesday, Oct. 7, at 7 p.m. Tickets: $20 at portsmouthnhtickets.com. A monthly episodic improv series centers on the Beaver family dynasty and their maple syrup matriarchy. Identical twin sisters are inheriting the business from their grandmother and aunt, who are also identical twins. Questions entertained in the free-wheeling show include whether to modernize or stick with tradition, i.e., should they “boldly go beyond just breakfast,” plus the mystery of the Great Pancake Social of 1987.

• A Victorian Frightful

New Hampshire Theatre Project (Langdon House, 959 Islington St., No. 3, Portsmouth) When: Thursday, Oct. 15, at 7 p.m. and Friday, Oct. 16, at 4 p.m. Tickets: $35 and up at nhtheatreproject.com. Eerie songs and stories inspired by Edgar Allan Poe and Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu are performed in a historic mansion by storyteller Diane Edgecomb, Genevieve Aichele, Kathleen Somssich and musical storyteller Tom Megan. An interactive presentation explores the Victorians’ deep interest in death along with their fascination with tarot, fortune-telling and spiritualism, with seasonal historical refreshments served, such as soul cakes and mulled cider. Guests are encouraged to dress in Gothic Victorian attire.

• Masque & Macabre: Edgar Allan Poe

Theatre Kapow (Gnomies, 254 N State St., Unit H, Concord) When: Friday, Oct. 23, at 6 p.m. Tickets: $135 (includes dinner) at tkapow.com. An intimate evening of candlelight, live theater, beautiful food and a touch of the macabre. Over the course of approximately three hours, Poe’s stories and poetry will unfold around diners experiencing an elegant five-course dinner inspired by his dark and unforgettable works.

• The Edgar Allan Poe Afterlife Radio Show

Winni Players Community Theatre (Winnipesaukee Playhouse, 33 Footlight Circle, Meredith) When: Thursday, Oct. 29, and Friday, Oct. 30, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Oct. 31, at 2 p.m.Tickets: $18 at winnipesaukeeplayhouse.org. A live, old-time-radio-style show conjuring the ghost of Edgar Allan Poe for a Halloween-week broadcast built from his stories and poems. Writers: Patrick Greene & Jason Pizzarello.

Murder most delicious

Sometime during a sumptuous meal, someone is going to die, and it’s up to a well-fed audience to find the killer. That’s the pitch behind an interactive murder mystery dinner theater staged by Lend Me A Theater, a fun-loving troupe marking its 11th production season this fall with Occupation: Murder!

The game-show-themed whodunit by Billy St. Jean, in which a TV quiz show sponsor turns up dead and nine lucky audience members get pulled onstage as contestants, happens at Tupelo Music Hall in Derry on Saturday, Oct. 3, and Sunday, Oct. 4, with a dessert-only version the following two weekends at YWCA New Hampshire in Manchester.

Kat Abdelwahid plays Broadway diva Julia Warren in the production and more than inhabits her role.

“You are in character that whole time and you do not break it; that’s who you are,” the company’s co-founder said in a recent Zoom interview. Actors mingle table to table during dinner and again at intermission, scouting for volunteers who are up for a turn in the spotlight.

The company grew out of a shared production of Lend Me a Tenor, when a few theater friends realized their traditional fixed-seating home venue couldn’t support the kind of roaming, audience-in-the-room show they wanted to build. Three months later they were a registered nonprofit.

Eleven years on, Lend Me A Theater has never operated in the red, has hauled its own set trailer as far as Maine’s Cliff House and Cape Cod, and recently found a semi-permanent home base at the Manchester YWCA after a decade as a fully nomadic troupe.

Dinner, death and deduction is a formula other companies are running with their own twists this fall, like the seasonal offerings at LaBelle Winery and Majestic Theatre. But for a group that started with a folding table and a borrowed hall, Occupation: Murder! is proof the schtick still has lots of life, and suspects, left in it.

More murderous merriment:

• Occupation: Murder!

Lend Me A Theater (Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry) When: Saturday, Oct. 3, and Sunday, Oct. 4, Tickets: $25 show only, $60 with dinner, at tupelohall.com.

Occupation: Murder! – Dessert only: Lend Me A Theater (YWCA New Hampshire, 72 Concord St., Manchester)When: Saturdays, Oct. 10 and Oct. 17, and Sundays, Oct. 11 and Oct. 18. Tickets: $25 at lendmeatheater.org.

Interactive murder mystery dinner theater set in a television studio; audience members help solve the crime. Presented by Lend Me a Theater. Director: Ben Mahon. Two ticket options, with or without an autumn-themed buffet meal.

• Monster Mash Murder Mystery Dinner Party LaBelle Winery (LaBelle Winery, 345 Route 101, Amherst). When: Sunday, Oct. 18, at 6:30 p.m. Tickets: $84 per person including dinner at labellewinery.com. The evening’s premise has famed director Alfred Z Hitchdick filming scenes for a horror blockbuster where Wednesday Addams meets the Universal classic monsters Dracula, Bride of Frankenstein and Invisible Man, with the real monster potentially a hidden murderer amongst them. Professional actors help diners enjoying a three-course menu unravel clues and challenge their detective skills.

• Much Ado About Murder

Majestic Theatre (Majestic Studio Theatre, 880 Page St., Manchester) When: Friday, Oct. 23, at 7 p.m.; Saturday, Oct. 24, at 2 and 7 p.m.; Sunday, Oct. 25, at 2 p.m. Tickets: $15-$20 at majestictheatre.net. Interactive murder mystery comedy with the audience voting on a killer’s identity at intermission via secret ballot. The victim is Carlton Larraby, whose life was filled with macabre little surprises for his family. His final joke is a Shakespeare-themed Halloween costume party that he sadly won’t live to enjoy, with the audience learning about the murder before the play’s characters. Writer: Pat Cook. Director: Becky Rush.

Halloween spirit

Manchester Community Theatre Players is already leaning into the season with a run of The Addams Family. But its second Halloween-timed offering this fall is a different animal entirely, and it comes with a promise, courtesy of co-director Amanda Morgan: “There will be blood.”

Carrie: The Musical is based on the Stephen King novel and Brian De Palma movie. Its first iteration is famous as one of Broadway’s most legendary flops, but it found new life in a darker, more psychologically grounded 2012 revision, though it’s still a deep cut for most theater fans.

MCTP’s production of it runs Oct. 23 through Nov. 1 at North End Montessori School, the same weekend a second area production of the show opens in Newmarket — but that one doesn’t have a real school gym. Morgan, who is both directing and music-directing, has wanted to tackle the show since she discovered it in college.

“I was always just a super fan of Halloween and all the fall-type activities, and I thought it was really cool that someone had made a horror movie into a musical,” she said in a Zoom interview, while describing having the chance to direct it as a dream project.

The musical stars a tight 18-and-up cast of 16, chosen over two days of auditions and including an intimacy coordinator, Jen Stearns, to safely stage the show’s more sensitive scenes. MCTP Artistic Director Margaret Tello co-directs the show with Morgan.

Morgan is aiming for a blend of tragedy, horror and dark comedy that honors both the campy 1988 flop and the leaner, bullying-focused 2012 rewrite, with enough fidelity to satisfy die-hard fans of the movie, along with enough new material to surprise them. “We’re trying our best to marry the two together,” she said.

The technical flourishes will be impressive, as lighting designer Josh Benham and a live pit will work in tight sync with sound design to simulate the show’s violence safely, an approach Morgan credits partly to the recent immersive stage production of Paranormal Activity as inspiration.

“It’s going to be a really acutely technically orchestrated experience,” Morgan said. With a run that stretches through Halloween weekend, Carrie: The Musical arrives at a moment when the work is enjoying a broader pop-culture resurgence, with an eight-episode streaming adaptation premiering Oct. 7 on Amazon Prime.

Rest assured as well that the infamous bucket of pig’s blood is very much part of the plan. So come for the nostalgia, stay for the gore. And enjoy a few more seasonally appropriate shows:

• Ride the Cyclone

Cue Zero Theatre Company (Arts Academy of New Hampshire, 19 Keewaydin Drive #4, Salem)When: Friday, Oct. 2, and Saturday, Oct. 3, at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, Oct. 4, at 2 p.m. Tickets: $20 at cztheatre.com. In this cult-favorite, dark-comedy musical, a group of teenagers killed in a roller-coaster accident compete in the afterlife for a chance at reincarnation, with music, book and lyrics written by Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell. Directed by Darren Bernard, with Music Director Nate Faro.

• Evil Dead The Musical

Seacoast Repertory Theatre (Seacoast Repertory Theatre, 125 Bow St., Portsmouth) When: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m., through Nov. 8. Tickets: $47 and up at seacoastrep.org. Campy, gory musical comedy adaptation of the Evil Dead film franchise, following five college students whose cabin weekend unleashes demonic forces. Book & Lyrics: George Reinblatt. Music: Frank Cipolla, Christopher Bond, Melissa Morris & George Reinblatt. Director: Kate Sheridan.

• Carrie: The Musical

Manchester Community Theatre Players (North End Montessori School, 698 Beech St., Manchester) When: Friday, Oct. 23, through Sunday, Nov. 1. Tickets: $15-$20 at manchestercommunitytheatre.com. Musical adaptation of Stephen King’s novel about a bullied telekinetic teenager whose prom-night humiliation triggers a bloody reckoning. Music: Michael Gore. Lyrics: Dean Pitchford. Book: Lawrence D. Cohen. Director & Music Director: Amanda Morgan. Co-directed by Margaret W. Tello.

• Carrie: The Musical

Millspace Mainstage & Jonesing for Theatre (Newmarket Millspace, 55 Main St., Newmarket) When: Friday, Oct. 23, through Sunday, Nov. 1 (including Saturday, Oct. 31, at 2 p.m.). Tickets: $25 at portsmouthnhtickets.com. Another adaptation of the King novel, directed by Kat Mail.

Many musicals

On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, it’s worth remembering that the day produced more than tragedy.

It also put a Newfoundland town of 9,000 in the spotlight, as it opened its homes to thousands of stranded strangers when 38 planes were diverted there. That’s the story of Come From Away, the Tony-nominated musical directed by Betsey Cox-Buteau that Community Players of Concord is bringing to the stage.

It’s an unusual show to direct, Cox-Buteau noted in a recent phone interview.

“It’s an ensemble piece, where everyone’s part is essentially equal,” she said. “There’s no particular star, but everybody is on stage for pretty much the entire show.”

An hour and 45 minutes long, it opens with the attacks and never lets the audience look away, but also never lets them forget what came next.

“It brings you into a space during that time, or in the days afterwards … where things were remarkably humane and good,” she continued. “It’s a marvelous story of community, and kindness.”

Before the first table read, Cox-Buteau gathered the cast, a dozen actors each tasked with multiple roles, around a table. She availed everyone, herself included, to describe where they were that fateful morning. The answers ranged widely.

“Some were just gleams in their mother’s eyes, and some of us were older,” she said. A Navy member who was serving in Southern California at the time “got to work and there was war, [while] I was a principal of an elementary school, K-8, and my reaction was to shut the school down.”

The exercise provided a shared foundation to tackle a script based on real people from the town of Gander. Some characters are straight portrayals, from the town’s mayor to the first female American Airlines pilot, grounded mid-flight. Others, like a couple who met on a diverted plane and later married, are composites.

With a Celtic score anchored by a pulsing bodhran drum, Come From Away has its cast singing and moving in near-constant rhythm. What it leaves audiences with, Cox-Buteau said, isn’t despair. “People will come away from this crying, for the most part, but full of happiness and their gratefulness for the kindness of strangers.”

Come From Away is one of many musicals on tap this season.

• The Addams Family

Manchester Community Theatre Players (North End Montessori School, Manchester) When: Friday, Sept. 25, and Saturday, Sept. 26, at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, Sept. 27, at 2 p.m. Tickets: $15-$20 at manchestercommunitytheatre.com. Clash of offbeat family and conventional in-laws to be, as daughter Wednesday brings home the “normal” boy she wants to marry to her parents Gomez and Morticia, based on Charles Addams’ New Yorker cartoons. Director: Margaret Tello. Music Director: Christie Conticchio. Choreographer: Kayla Williams.

• Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Dine In Productions (Newmarket Millspace, 55 Main St., Newmarket) When: Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from Friday, Sept. 18, through Sunday, Oct. 4. Tickets: $25 at portsmouthnhtickets.com. Genre-stretching musical tells a story of love, identity and survival through storytelling and powerful music, “a celebration of self-expression and resilience; loud, vulnerable and deeply human.” An intimate production brings the show up close, as Hedwig navigates fame, heartbreak and her search for wholeness.

• Sister Act

Palace Theatre (Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., Manchester) When: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m., through Oct. 4. Tickets: $45-$54 at palacetheatre.org. Based on the movie starring Whoopi Goldberg. A disco diva (Cathy McKay) witnesses a mob murder. Hiding in a convent, she transforms the ragged choir of nuns into a sensation. Music: Alan Menken. Lyrics: Glenn Slater. Book: Cheri Steinkellner & Bill Steinkellner (additional book material: Douglas Carter Beane).

• Green Day’s American Idiot

Seacoast Repertory Theatre (Seacoast Repertory Theatre, 125 Bow St., Portsmouth) When: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. through Sept. 27. Tickets: $47 and up at seacoastrep.org. With the Grammy Award-winning multi-platinum album as a starting point, this musical is both political rage and straight-up punk rock. This high-octane show includes every song from Green Day’s American Idiot as well as several songs from its follow-up release, 21st Century Breakdown.

• Seussical the Musical

ROH Presents (Rochester Opera House, 31 Wakefield St., Rochester) When: Friday, Oct. 16, through Sunday, Nov. 8, Wednesday through Sunday, various times. Tickets: $32-$36 at rochesteroperahouse.org. A mashup of Dr. Seuss stories centered on Horton the Elephant, working to protect the minions of Whoville despite a skeptical jungle. Music: Stephen Flaherty. Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, book by Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty, co-conceived with Barry Moss.

• The Commedia Pinocchio

Winnipesaukee Playhouse (Winnipesaukee Playhouse, 33 Footlight Circle, Meredith) When: Saturdays, Oct. 17 and Oct. 24, at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.; Sunday, Oct. 25, at 1 p.m. Tickets: $16-$22 at winnipesaukeeplayhouse.org. Professional Theatre for Young Audiences presents a commedia dell’arte-style, entirely a cappella musical retelling of Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio, published by Pioneer Drama Service. By Lane Riosley with music by Aven Stephenson.

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Windham Actors Guild (Windham High School Theater, 64 London Bridge Road, Windham) When: Friday, Oct. 23, and Saturday, Oct. 24, at 7 p.m.; Sunday, Oct. 25, at 2 p.m. Tickets: $22 at windhamactorsguild.com. Musical based on Roald Dahl’s story of Charlie Bucket, who wins a golden ticket to tour Willy Wonka’s mysterious chocolate factory. Book: David Greig. Music & Lyrics: Marc Shaiman & Scott Wittman. Director: Paul Conway (Music Director: Michael Shaw; Choreographer: Caleb Anderson.

• Fiddler on the Roof

Palace Theatre (Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., Manchester) When: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 7:30 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays, 2 p.m., through Oct. 4. Tickets: $45-$54 at palacetheatre.org. Tony winner about a poor milkman and his five daughters. With the help of a colorful and tight-knit Jewish community, he tries to protect his daughters and instill in them traditional values in the face of changing social mores and the growing anti-Semitism of Czarist Russia. Written by Jerome Robbins and Harold Prince.

• The Wedding Singer

Actorsingers (Keefe Center for the Arts, 117 Elm St., Nashua). When: Friday, Nov. 6, and Saturday, Nov. 7, at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, Nov. 8, at 2 p.m. Tickets: $25 at actorsingers.org. Musical based on the Adam Sandler film about an ’80s wedding-band singer who falls for a waitress engaged to the wrong guy. Book: Chad Beguelin & Tim Herlihy. Music: Matthew Sklar. Lyrics: Chad Beguelin. Director: MaryEllen Stevenson. Music Director: Jessica Love. Choreographer: Valerie Psoinos Nelson.

• Irving Berlin’s White Christmas

Winni Players Community Theatre (Winnipesaukee Playhouse, 33 Footlight Circle, Meredith) When: Thursday, Nov. 19, through Saturday, Nov. 21, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Nov 21, and Sunday, Nov. 22, at 2 p.m. Tickets: $17-$25 at winnipesaukeeplayhouse.org. Stage musical based on the 1954 film built around Irving Berlin standards: Two WWII Army buddies turned song-and-dance men help save a struggling Vermont inn. Music & Lyrics: Irving Berlin. Book: David Ives & Paul Blake.

• Come From Away

Community Players of Concord (Concord Civic Auditorium, 2 Prince St., Concord) When: Friday, Nov. 20, and Saturday, Nov. 21, at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, Nov. 22, at 2 p.m. Tickets: $22 adults, $20 students and seniors at communityplayersofconcord.org. True story of Gander, Newfoundland, whose residents welcomed thousands of air travelers diverted there on Sept. 11, 2001. Book, Music & Lyrics: Irene Sankoff & David Hein. Director: Betsey Cox-Buteau.

Character driven

Finally, there are shows that are all about the actors, like Kate Hammill’s Emma, which Nashua Theatre Guild will stage Oct. 2 through Oct. 4 at the Janice B. Streeter Theatre. NTG’s Alyson Galipeau described the play, directed by Vicky Sandlin, as a period comedy that will strike a chord with fans of Bridgerton.

It’s centered around the antics of lead character Emma Woodhouse, who decides to make matchmaking her pet project and arranges a series of events to that end.

“However, her plot backfires, resulting in outcomes that will make the audience laugh,” Galipeau wrote in an email. “While she is busy trying to set other people up, she fails to notice that her own match has been in front of her the entire time.”

Here are more stage productions to enjoy:

• Night Watch

Garrison Players Arts Center (Garrison Players Arts Center, 449 Roberts Road, Rollinsford) When: Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 4 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m., Oct. 2 through Oct. 17. Tickets: $18 and up at garrisonplayers.org. A woman (Sarah Kuhn) in her Manhattan apartment is haunted by the horrific memory of her first husband’s affair and death, both of which she discovered at the same time in this psychological thriller. She glimpses what appears to be a murdered body in the building across the way, but no one believes her. Writer: Lucille Fletcher. Director: Judi Currie

• Emma

Nashua Theatre Guild (Janice B. Streeter Theatre, 14 Court St., Nashua) When: Friday, Oct. 2, and Saturday, Oct. 3, at 7 p.m.; Sunday, Oct. 4, at 4:30 p.m. Tickets: $20 at nashuatheatreguild.org. Stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s comedy of manners about a well-meaning matchmaker whose meddling in her friends’ love lives keeps backfiring. A fresh feminist take on a treasured classic, this Emma breaks down convention, expectation, and even the fourth wall with vibrant comic flair. Director: Vicky Sandin.

• Looking Glass Land – Misadventures of a Girl Named Alice

Community Players of Concord (Concord Civic Auditorium, 2 Prince St., Concord) When: Friday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m., and Saturday, Oct. 17, at 2 p.m. Tickets: $15 at communityplayersofconcord.org. James DeVita’s take on Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, this adaptation highlights and improvises on the pure, unadulterated fun of the story while retaining some of Carroll’s deeper meaning, but mostly it’s pure silliness. All the familiar characters are there, and some new ones, like a baseball team, a rap group, a train conductor and star-struck tourists. Director: Karen Braz.

• Queens

Pinkerton Players (Stockbridge Theatre, 44 N. Main St. (Pinkerton Academy), Derry) When: Friday, Oct. 16, and Saturday, Oct. 17, at 7 p.m.; Sunday, Oct. 18, at 2 p.m. Tickets: $5-$15 at pinkertonacademy.org. King Henry VIII is trapped in purgatory, bound to his throne by a Fool and the ghostly Women in White, forced to relive his transgressions against his six queens, his mistresses and the people of the court for eternity as punishment. Writer: Kristen Doherty.

• The Sound Inside

New Hampshire Theatre Project (West End Studio Theatre, 959 Islington St., Portsmouth) When: Friday, Oct. 16, through Sunday, Nov. 1, Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 4 p.m., Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Tickets: $30-$33 at portsmouthnhtickets.com. A solitary creative-writing professor’s carefully guarded routine is upended when a student reveals a devastating secret, in this Tony-nominated two-hander. Writer: Adam Rapp. Director: Constance Witman.

• And Then There Were None

The Players’ Ring ( Players’ Ring Theatre, 105 Marcy St., Portsmouth) When: Oct. 23 through Nov. 15, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. (Oct. 31, 2 p.m. only; Nov. 1, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.)Tickets: $33 at playersring.org. “A masterfully constructed thriller packed with shocking twists, mounting suspense, and one of the most famous endings in theater history,” as 10 strangers lured to an isolated island are murdered one by one in Agatha Christie’s best-selling mystery. Director: Jamie Bradley.

• An Empty Sky

The Players’ Ring (Players’ Ring Theatre, 105 Marcy St., Portsmouth, playersring.org/) When: Tuesday, Oct 27, at 6:30 p.m. Staged reading of a play depicting a love relationship “struggling to blossom in a time of political strangeness nearly devoid of hope” centered in a small New England church, as a disgraced clergywoman and a Jewish piano tuner build a fragile haven. Written by Joshua Faigen. Directed by Leslie Pasternack.

• Crimes of the Heart

Bedford Off Broadway (Bedford Old Town Hall, 3 Meetinghouse Road, Bedford) When: Friday, Nov. 6, through Sunday, Nov. 15. Tickets: $12-$15 at bedfordoffbroadway.com. Pulitzer Prize-winning dark comedy about three estranged sisters who reunite in Mississippi after the youngest shoots her abusive husband. Writer: Beth Henley. Directed by Deb Lund and stage managed by Pat Napolitano.

• A Wrinkle in Time

Winnipesaukee Playhouse Education Dept. (Winnipesaukee Playhouse, 33 Footlight Circle, Meredith) When: Friday, Nov. 6, and Saturday, Nov. 7, at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, Nov. 8, at 2 p.m. Tickets: $16-$22 at winnipesaukeeplayhouse.org. Stage adaptation performed by students ages 8-18 of Madeleine L’Engle’s Newbery-winning novel, in which Meg Murry, her brother and their friend travel through time and space to rescue her scientist father from an evil force.

• Blithe Spirit

Cue Zero Theatre Company (Arts Academy of New Hampshire, 19 Keewaydin Drive, No. 4, Salem) When: Friday, Nov. 20, and Saturday, Nov. 21, at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, Nov. 22, at 2 p.m. Tickets: $10 at cztheatre.com. Noel Coward comedy about a novelist’s dead first wife who’s accidentally conjured up by an eccentric medium and proceeds to haunt his second marriage, presented by Arts Academy of New Hampshire.

Lend me your beers

Bar Shakespeare in Manchester

At Stark Brewing Co. on Monday, Oct. 19, it will be possible to order a pint and enjoy a Shakespeare play. That’s the idea behind Shakesbeer, a bar-reading series from Stage of Fools Theatre Company. It began with a back room staging of Much Ado About Nothing on Sept. 21 and continues with Julius Caesar.

Stage of Fools founder and artistic director Glenn Provost describes the format as loose by design, with actors carrying scripts as they weave among the tables and let the play spill into the crowd.

“It’s a little bit improvisational because we only have two rehearsals, one of which is going to be over Zoom and then the other one is in person,” Provost said. The big beats are blocked, but everything else is looser, as actors feel out the room in real time.

The concept wasn’t invented from scratch. Provost points to Seven Stages Shakespeare Company, which ran the similar ShakesBEERience in Portsmouth for many years, as a direct inspiration. He got the blessing from its former executive director Christine Penny, now at the Dance Hall in Kittery, to carry the idea forward.

He’s also performed twice with VanGuard Shakespeare, a comparable series in Salem, Mass. Provost has run companies before like Strangers at Home Theatre Company and Bolt Cutter Productions, but he said those were built as vehicles for two-person dramatic shows.

Stage of Fools is the opposite instinct: an ensemble built to grow. Nine actors make up the Much Ado cast, with nine or 10 expected for each of the next two shows; Provost estimates the company will work with more than 50 actors by the end of its first season.

That season runs monthly through fall and into spring, with Julius Caesar on Oct. 19, Henry IV on Nov. 16, then a winter break before Romeo & Juliet returns Feb. 8 with a “gender-crossed” Valentine’s Day spin, The Winter’s Tale on March 8 and The Comedy of Errors closing things out April 12.

Every (free) show is one night only, at Stark Brewing Co., 500 N. Commercial St., Manchester, 6 p.m. — Michael Witthaus

Featured photo: Quinn Spiewak at Bar Shakespeare. Courtesy photo.