Copenhagen Begins Tonight
Tonight we continue our ambitious season of politically and socially relevant theater when we present the first preview performance of Michael Frayn’s Tony Award winning play Copenhagen. Director, playwright, professor and Vineyard Playhouse Artistic Associate Jon Lipsky directs the production. Boston actor Ken Baltin and New York actors Cary Barker and Rob Skolits make up the intense triangle of characters that weave their way through Frayn’s complicated world of quantum physics, WWII politics, and high stakes secrecy. “How we know why people do what they do, and even how one knows what one does oneself....” says Frayn “this is the heart of the play.” Copenhagen opens on Friday August 3rd at 8pm, following previews tonight August 1st at 7pm and August 2nd at 8pm.
Copenhagen is based on an historic meeting in the middle of World War II between two theoretical physicists, the German, Werner Heisenberg, the father of the Uncertainty Principle, and the Dane, Niels Bohr, an architect of quantum theory. What they spoke about at that fateful meeting is in dispute to this day, but it undoubtedly pertained to the possibility of building an atomic bomb. "The play revolves around physics but has much wider implications," said Lipsky. "At the heart of the drama lies the question of whether we can ever know our motives for anything we do. The "uncertainty" in physics is seen as a metaphor for the uncertainty at the heart of human behavior. "The brilliance of this play is that it resonates on so many levels" said Lipsky.
This is the second play this year that Lipsky has directed related to themes of World War II. Last fall he directed Leslie Epstein's King of the Jews, a dark comic drama about the Holocaust, for which he won the Boston critics Eliot Norton Award for directing. The directing honor was also awarded for his work with jazz musician Stan Strickland on the one-man show Coming Up For Air: an Autojazzography which was first produced in a workshop production right here at the Vineyard Playhouse.
Copenhagen runs August 1st-18th. Performances are at 7:00 pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8:00 pm on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. There will be a 3:00 pm matinee performance on Thursday, August 16th only.

The Tempest Rages for One More Week
There is only one week left to experience our spectacular out-of-doors production of Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST directed by MJ Bruder Munafo and starring Larry Bull as Prospero, Amy Elizabeth Sabin as Ariel, and Billy Meleady as Caliban. Heralded by the Vineyard Gazette as “one of the highlights of anyone’s Vineyard summer” this production is a great evening of theater for the whole family! Bring a picnic and your love of Shakespeare and the outdoors. Our newly renovated amphitheater is the perfect setting for this magical play which runs only one hour and 20 minutes. Remaining shows are tonight Wednesday August 1 through Sunday August 5th at 5pm at the Tisbury Amphitheater. Don’t miss out on this “supremely enjoyable” show!

Tony Shalhoub & Brooke Adams in Rubles
This Week’s Monday Night Special

“If I were rich, I'd write the shortest stories possible." –Anton Chekhov

The Vineyard Playhouse continues its popular Monday Night Special series this Monday August 6th at 7pm with RUBLES, an evening of readings of three short plays by Carol Rocamora inspired by the stories of Anton Chekhov. The cast includes familiar Playhouse faces such as Tony Shalhoub, Brooke Adams, Robert Brustein, Paul Munafo, and Anna Yukevich among others. The reading will be followed by a question and answer session and a reception in the theater lobby with the cast and Dr. Rocamora. Tickets are $40 and can be purchased in advance by calling the box office at 508-696-6300. Join us for this very unique evening of Chekhov!