MacDuffie’s Spring Play: “The Mustardseed Inn”

The Mustardseed Inn, this year’s Spring Play at MacDuffie, will be performed in the Little Theater on May 17 and 18. It is directed by Middle School Theater teacher Lucy Tew.

The play includes the original script of Dear Brutus by James Matthew Barrie, in which an assortment of guests are warned against going into the woods because it is Midsummer’s Eve.

The play is “like Midsummer Night’s Dream meets the enchanted woods,” Tew said. She explained that the whole idea of the play is that the mortals are all wrapped up in themselves and in what they perceive as their real lives (unhappy marriages, love triangles, job dissatisfaction), then they all get sucked into an enchanted wood that doesn’t seem to be in the real world.

Tew said that this play is similar to the script of last year’s play, In the Graveyards, which included the works of Edgar Lee Masters.

The script of Barrie’s Dear Brutus is not the only creative aspect going into the production. Poetry by New Zealand poet Katherine Mansfield will be performed in this production as well.

“Mansfield and Barrie have their own special wheelhouses. Barrie has written about folklore, magic, fairy tales, and legends of the British Isles— changelings and fairies and all that sort of thing. And Mansfield wrote poems that have a lot of imagery about fairies and English Folklore,” Tew said.   

Another out of the ordinary aspect is that the middle third of the play will be performed outside. The original script written by Barrie calls for two sets- a little country house in the English countryside and the other set in an enchanted wood.

“Why don’t we translate one little pretend world into the real world? There’s great magic the outside captures that the Little Theater can’t,” Tew said.

The grotto outside will be the backdrop where picnic tables and lawn chairs will be set up for the seating.

According to Tew, the rehearsals leading up to the rehearsal are going well. The cast and Tew were fully blocked (knew their movements on stage) after only two weeks.

Junior John Parrish, the stage manager of The Mustardseed Inn, also felt good about the preparation.

“There is a very young cast, a lot of middle schoolers, the amount of effort and dedication they are giving is quite impressive,” he said. 

Tickets are still available through a link that has been emailed to the students, faculty and staff. Tickets are free for students and $10 for adults or others that do not attend MacDuffie.