Productions about love and relationships are as old as theater itself.
But add the mythical element of dragons, a dash of magic and a storyline that jumps between two moments in space and time, and you’ve got something unique in “Dragon Play,” which takes the stage at the Sherbino Theater in Ridgway this weekend.
The play opens in rural Minnesota, where the audience learns a husband and wife are breaking up after a fight the night before. After the husband leaves, there’s a knock at the door and the wife is greeted by a 6-foot dragon.
Then there’s a flash back in time to a hot stretch of highway in Texas, where a boy befriends a young, wounded female dragon. The play bounces back and forth between those settings, exploring the convergence between reality and fantasy and the conflict between desire and duty.
Director Colin Sullivan said he was hooked from the moment he picked up playwright Jenny Connell Davis’ script, so much so that he read it twice, back-toback.
One of the things that strikes him about the play is the heightened, poetic language, where actors are frequently directly addressing the audience.
He said “Dragon Play” delves into how difficult it can be to be with someone and how relationships can shape life.
He called the play “dark, strange, weird in all the greatest ways, in all the ways people try to know each other and whatever love means to them.”
The production stars actors who have performed across Ouray County’s various community theater troupes: Alex Boukis, Stephen Laster, Riley Burr and Andrea Sokolowski, among others.
The play features multiple actors wearing claws and 8-foot wings. One actor plays two different ages over a 10-year span.
Sullivan doesn’t think about what he hopes the audience takes away from the play.
“I think about telling the story that someone has written,” he said. “I ask my actors at the front end of the process, ‘What do you think this is about?’ Then we use that as part of the play.
“Art is the last great thing we can disagree on without killing each other. Whatever you get from it, if you get something from it, that’s great.”
IF YOU GO
What: “Dragon Play”
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday through Monday, July 26-29
Where: Sherbino Theater, 604 Clinton St.
Tickets: www.sherbino.org
Noteworthy: The play is rated PG-13 for adult themes and content inappropriate for young children
