"Into the Breeches!"

July 30, 2024 — It's 1942 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. World War II is raging and the Oberon Play House's director and all its leading men are on the European front battling the Nazis. The director's wife, Maggie Dalton, played by one of my favorite actors in Tamworth, New Hampshire's The Barnstormers, Madeleine Maby, has decided the Oberon won't be shut down and plans Shakespeare's Henriad with an all-female cast in male roles.

Into the Breeches! by George Brant was directed for the Barnstormers by Sarah Rozene. Scenic designer was Richie Ouellette. The many costumes the eight actors went through were the work of Clara Jean Kelly..

Dee Nelson, another of my favorites, is the play's diva, taking on the roles of Henry IV and V. Peyton Pugmire, one of only two males in the cast, may have avoided military service because of questionable sexual orientation. He takes on the role of stage manager and also plays Mistress Quickly. Ida Green (Tsebiyah Mishael Derry), serving as maid for the group, earns the role of Hotspur. Stephanie Lynne Mason appears as Grace Richards, a newcomer to town. Lisa Kate Joyce assumes the role of June Bennett, the ingenue who plays the Kates.

The two veteran Barnstormer actors, each with forty-five years at the Barnstormers, a total of 90 years between them, nearly stole the show. Robert Bates played Ellsworth Snow, board president of the Oberon Play House. Jean Mar Brown as Winifred Snow, wife of Ellsworth, ended up playing Falstaff. These two actors, consummate professionals that they are, have no qualms about making themselves look ridiculous if the script calls for it. Brown appeared in several of the most outrageous get-ups in this show of many costumes, and I never thought I'd see the tall, distinguished, courtly Bob Bates resplendent in a woman's gown and perfectly coiffed woman's hair-do, but that's how he appeared near the end.

This was a comedy of gentle humor, with occasional lapses into slapstick, especially in the costumes. It's a warm-hearted look at a group of people in a cooperative effort to achieve a goal against all odds with a major part of the usual team missing. It was a real audience-pleaser and got a standing ovation at curtain call.