Pigeon Creek Shakespeare presents The Knight of the Burning Pestle

The Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company will present The Knight of the Burning Pestle by Francis Beaumont as part of the Lake Effect Fringe Festival at the Dog Story Theater, 7 Jefferson SE in Grand Rapids.  Performances of the play will take place on February 2 and 3 at 8:00 p.m. and February 4 at 3:00 p.m..  Tickets are $14 for adults and $8 for students and seniors, and are available at www.dogstorytheater.com.

Francis Beaumont was a playwright working in London at the same time as Shakespeare, and The Knight of the Burning Pestle is a play that Michigan audiences rarely have a chance to see.  Pigeon Creek executive director Katherine Mayberry says that other than an abbreviated, 20-minute version that was presented at the Grand Valley Shakespeare Festival several years ago, “the most recent production we can find evidence of in the state of Michigan was in 1906 at the University of Michigan.”

The Knight of the Burning Pestle is a farcical comedy in which a company of boy actors attempting to perform a play are interrupted by audience members who want to see something different.  Hilarity ensues as the actors attempt to accomodate this audience request.  Pigeon Creek’s production features actors Kathleen Bode, Charles Decker, Jackie Frid, Kat Hermes, Maggie Hinckley, Scott Lange, Katherine Mayberry, Amber Miller, Ashley Normand, and Riley VanEss.

In keeping with theatre rehearsal processes from the late 1500s, this group of actors are working without a director, making artistic decisions as an ensemble.  The Knight of the Burning Pestle will also play at Seven Steps Up in Spring Lake, and the Jenison Center for the Arts.  The Lake Effect Fringe Festival continues at Dog Story Theater through March 4, with performances by a wide variety of local theatre companies.