Thor & Loki tale turns theatrical
The Marvel Comic Universe meets High School Musical, sans big song and dance numbers, in Hammered: A Thor & Loki Play, to be performed by the Peacock Players youth theater group at the Janice B. Streeter Theatre in Nashua from Friday, Feb. 16, through Sunday, Feb. 18. The original work comes via Marvel Spotlight, a brand extension that aims to put a different spin on the comic book and blockbuster film franchise.
Hammered was written by two-time Tony-winning actor Christian Borle. In a 2019 video to promote Marvel Spotlight, Borle talked about liking the idea of using characters and comic tropes to get deeper into the superhero dynamic — while also shaking up the story a bit.
“In my universe, Loki is not the bad guy,” he said. “They drive each other crazy, but there’s a real fraternal bond between them. It’s brotherhood, family, and one big hammer.”
Directing the Peacock Players production is Samantha Searles, who grew up in southern New Hampshire and returned last November at the behest of Peacock Executive Director Elle Millar. Searle attended UNH’s Manchester campus and earned her undergraduate degree at Suffolk University in Boston.
“I’ve been a big fan of the Marvel Universe since I was in middle school, so to be able to work on it, with middle and high school kids, is really cool,” first-time director Searles said in a recent phone interview. “It’s fun, and we get to play around with accents, costumes and all that to bring it from big movies and TV to the stage.”
The hour-long play is set in a modern high school and revolves around a story, told by an aged Thor to his granddaughters, of life when he was a teenager.
“You travel between Earth through the eyes of some kids in the school, back through the cosmic void … to Asgard,” Searles said. “This would take place after Avengers: Endgame, but before the Loki show.”
The earthbound protagonists are a jock and a comic book nerd, patterned after Thor and Loki, but “they’re written to kind of subvert the traditional roles a little bit,” Searles observed. “The jock is actually interested in reading about Thor, which makes a lot of sense because Thor is the jock character, but he’s got a heart of gold … hopefully, audiences will get a kick out of a different take on these classic characters.”
The teenage cast “is super talented and having a lot of fun together,” Searle continued. “So much fun that last week during rehearsal my asthma got triggered because I was laughing so hard. The show is quirky, really weird, and I’ve told them to lean into that. [For example], Asgardians live for thousands of years, so even though it seems like you’re teenagers you really have thousands of years of backstory and things; play around with that.”
The current show offered a unique opportunity for newcomers reluctant to try out for musicals, like Once Upon a Mattress Youth Edition, which opens March 17, and Xanadu, which runs May 12 to May 21. “It’s just a play, and that widens the number of kids we can have,” Searles said. “Not everyone’s a singer or a dancer.”
Auditions for a teen-centric production of the Broadway hit Six will begin in June. Peacock Players welcomes new talent; the cast of Hammered also includes a first-timer.
“We can always use more kids,” Searles said. “Our tech and stage crew are largely kids too, and they get to learn about all the technology and stuff behind the scenes. There’s definitely lots of room for people to join.”
When: Friday, Feb. 16, 7 p.m.; Saturday, Feb. 17, 2 and 7 p.m., and Sunday, Feb. 18, 2 p.m.
Location: Janice B. Streeter Theatre, 14 Court St., Nashua
Tickets: $12 to $18 at peacockplayers.org
Featured photo: Rehearsal for Hammered: A Thor & Loki play. Courtesy photo.
