Theater@First Brings 'The Lady’s Not For Burning' to Twenty-First Century and Beyond

The locally based, all volunteer, theater troupe Theater@First opened its latest production, The Lady’s Not For Burning, last week at

But there’s still plenty of time to catch this dark comedic romance first hand. The show will run seven more times through Feb. 27.

The tribulations of an accused witch ordered to be hanged and a solider bent on voluntarily facing his death drive the main plot. But the two-hour production is rife with comedy and romance, as an array of subplots arise among the 11-member cast of characters.   

“It's a little bit of an exploration into what we like about our lives and what we don't like; and hopelessness and despair versus people who are optimistic and happy about living and going on living and enjoying their lives,” explained the show’s director, Renee Johnson.

Theater@First’s production of British playwright Christopher Fry’s The Lady’s Not For Burning is a “serious departure” from any other known staging of the play, Johnson said.

She explained that she wanted to bring the story, originally set during the 1600s in Europe, to a more modern time. The adaptation takes place in post World War I America, in a small town in West Virginia.

“I definitely wanted to bring it to America and one of the things that I've always had kind of in the back of my mind is that setting it in Appalachia would be an interesting twist,” she said.

Johnson also drew on the rich musical tradition of the region to enhance the performance, which features a musical score crafted by guitarist Scot Castle and mandolin and banjo player, Jiro Kokubu.

“There’s a Bluegrass background, there's a lot of Folk involved, and Americana,” Johnson said. “And since Boston has such a rich scene for this kind of music, it really seemed it would be a good idea to kind of highlight that.” 

The show has been in production for three months, and opened to a fairly small house at Theater@First's first-ever Thursday evening opening on Feb. 10. But, the show goes on, and  Johnson said they hope to draw larger crowds to the space, which holds about 75. 

“We got a lot of great feedback and the cast is really excited,” she said. “Everything went smoothly and we're looking forward to doing [seven] more.”

 Tickets can be reserved or purchased online here.