Mamaí's second season: classic and innovative

Mamaí’s summer season includes "Stranded on Earth," a one-woman play by Cleveland Heights playwright Eric Coble (above). [photo credit: Betsy Molnar/Big Stills]

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Following its award-winning inaugural season, Mamaí Theatre Company announces its expanded second year, which begins on June 16 with a benefit staged reading of the rarely performed James Joyce’s “Ulysses in Nighttown” at—of all places—Nighttown in Cleveland Heights.

June 16 has special meaning for Joyce fans. Bloomsday, as it’s called, celebrates June 16, 1904 as depicted in James Joyce’s Ulysses. The day is named for Leopold Bloom, the central character in the novel, and follows his life and thoughts from 8 a.m. to the early hours of the next morning. The benefit evening begins at 5:30 p.m. sharp with a three-course Joycean-inspired dinner, designed by Brendan Ring, Nighttown’s proprietor. The reading will follow. 


Also in June, Mamaí (pronounced Mah’ may) plans to host a rare theater event. Ten members of Actors Equity Association will gather to self-produce George Bernard Shaw’s “Heartbreak House.” A popular 20th-century masterpiece, this eclectic drama features an ensemble cast of unexpected visitors to an unusual home. Shaw pays tribute to pre-World War I innocence with a script that plays out like a haunting symphony, championing human wonder in the face of fear and change. “Heartbreak House” runs June 12-29. Tickets will be sold at the door only. With the exception of “Ulysses at Nighttown,” all of the group’s productions will be at Pilgrim Church, 2592 W. 14th St., Tremont.

Next in Mamaí’s season will be a regional premiere of Eric Coble’s “Stranded on Earth,” a co-production with Theatre Ninjas; Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia;” and Marina Carr’s “Woman and Scarecrow.”  

“Stranded on Earth” is the second play in Cleveland Heights playwright Eric Coble’s Alexandra trilogy. It tells the story of Alexa, a visual artist, as she contemplates the exchange between personal freedom and putting down roots against the backdrop of a personal tragedy. This extraordinary one-woman show runs June 5-22.

“Arcadia,” written in 1993, concerns the relationship between past and present, between order and disorder, and the certainty of knowledge. Cited by many critics as the finest play from one of the most significant contemporary playwrights in the English language, “Arcadia” is set in an English country house and takes place in both the early 1800s and the present day (1993 in the original production). The activities of two modern scholars and the house's current residents are juxtaposed with the lives of those who lived there 180 years earlier. Part detective story, part love story, part comedy of manners, the play runs from July 17-Aug. 3.

Mamaí Theatre Company was founded in 2010 by Bernadette Clemens, Wendy Kriss, Christine McBurney and Derdriu Ring. Mamaí, the Gaelic word for “mother,” comprises four working mothers, theater artists, colleagues and friends who all felt it was time to create opportunities for themselves and their community. “Don’t wait to create” became the inspiration for the company. Their mission is to create intelligent, relevant classical theater for Cleveland's theatrical artists, and equal opportunity for women in the professional theater community.

Mamaí's final offering this season is the regional premiere of “Woman and Scarecrow,” written by Irish playwright Marina Carr. In a play critics describe as “brilliant” and “imaginative,” a dying woman is visited by a figure called Scarecrow, an enigmatic character that might be her alter ego, a morphine-induced hallucination, or the very thing keeping death at bay. An Irish journey of magical realism, mythology and transformation, the play runs from Oct. 30 through Nov. 16.

For more information about Mamaí’s upcoming season, and to purchase tickets, go to www.mamaitheatreco.org. Season subscriptions and sponsorship's are available. Unless otherwise noted, shows run Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m.