It starts with lemonade and cookies. It’s true! Theatregoers entering the space at Woolly Mammoth Theatre set aside for “Beertown,” literally walk into a room with a dessert pot-luck set up behind the seats. Homemade cookies and brownies set the interactive scene for the town hall-style meeting that’s about to take place. The “Mayor” of this once industrial burgh works the room, glad-handing those who have just become “citizens” for the next two hours.
Just the phrase “interactive theatre” is enough to fill a front row patron with mortal fear, but “Beertown” doesn’t have actors pulling audience members by the arm into an awkward, unwanted moment in the spotlight—it simply starts with the assumption that all present are in a meeting, where they’ll be voting on which items will be included in a time-capsule .
Please read the FULL REVIEW and the Interview with actor/director Rachel Grossman