PORT ANGELES — You could go to New York City to see John Turturro in “The Master Builder,” where tickets run $25 to $105.
Or you can see it here with Ron Graham, Nikkole Adams, Jim Guthrie and Lola Hassan-Adams, among other local thespians, at the Port Angeles Community Playhouse. For a free-will donation.
John Manno, theater director, musician and actor, is at it again with a Second Stage production of “The Master Builder,” the Henrik Ibsen play that opened 120 years ago in Berlin.
In this weekend’s rendition, Graham plays Harvard Solness, a successful builder of churches and houses; one day Hilde, played by Nikkole Adams, shows up on his doorstep to alter his life forever.
“Builder” is regarded as one of Ibsen’s most revealing plays, and “it’s an intensely emotional work,” promises Manno.
For the cast, which also features Zachary Luke King Moorman, Julie Belling and Tim Macausland, it’s not the usual playhouse/college/community fare.
The cast has done “an amazing job,” Manno said.
Their handiwork will arrive on stage at 7:30 tonight and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. That’s it. Manno knows the production has a lot of competition on this busier-than-usual weekend in Port Angeles. It’s the only time he could squeeze “Builder” in, what with his schedule this spring.
Manno is directing the Find Your Voice New Play Festival at Peninsula College May 31-June 2, and then will start rehearsing “Becket” for a July opening at the Port Angeles Community Playhouse.
This “Builder” has an added touch from Manno: live, Norwegian-folk-inspired music for the opening and between the acts. Violist Leah Haworth and violinist Andrew McInnes will play pieces by local composer Neil Paynter.
Manno noted too that his staging of Ibsen’s classic differs from the naturalistic style in other productions. His “Builder” is “more avant garde,” he said.
There is no set admission charge for “The Master Builder,” as Manno simply wants to provide access to another kind of theater in Port Angeles. He hopes this play will provoke its audiences to think about what power is, and what it does to the powerful and the weak.
For more information about productions at the playhouse, see www.PACommunityPlayers.com or phone 360-452-6651.
