Experience the thrill and laughter of classic tales and dark comedy this summer with the Kent County Theatre Guild. Dive into the whimsical chaos of 'The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon' and the tense familial drama of 'The Beauty Queen of Leenane'. These plays promise a rollercoaster of emotions, blending humor with heart, and fantasy with reality. Join us in Dover for an unforgettable theatrical journey!

A Theatrical Delight: From Grimm's Tales to Irish Dark Comedy

The Kent County Theatre Guild is set to dazzle audiences with a captivating lineup of performances this season. The curtain will rise first on 'Scrooge MacBeth' by David MacGregor, a whimsical concoction of Shakespearean drama and holiday cheer. Following this, David Auburn's 'Proof' will unravel a poignant narrative of genius and mental health. Finally, 'The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon' promises a riotous romp through fairy tale madness. These performances, rich in creativity and talent, are poised to offer an enchanting escape into the world of theater.

Theatrical Triumphs: Unforgettable Performances at the Kent County Theatre Guild

Step into a world where fairy tales are turned upside down and Irish dark comedy reigns supreme. The Kent County Theatre Guild invites you to two captivating productions that promise laughter, intrigue, and a touch of the unexpected. 'The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon' takes the stage with its fast-paced, comedic blend of classic and obscure tales, calling for audience participation and madcap fun. Meanwhile, 'The Beauty Queen of Leenane' offers a darkly comic exploration of a mother-daughter relationship in rural Ireland, weaving humor with heartache.

A Theatrical Journey: From Grimm's Fairy Tales to Rural Ireland

Get ready for an extraordinary theatrical journey as the Kent County Theatre Guild presents two captivating productions that promise to leave audiences enthralled. 'The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon' offers a wild comedic twist on classic fairy tales, while 'The Beauty Queen of Leenane' delves into the darkly comic dynamics of a mother-daughter relationship. With unforgettable narratives, talented performers, and an engaging atmosphere, these plays are not to be missed. Discover how these performances breathe new life into storytelling and explore the complexities of human relationships.

Unveiling Classic Tales and Dark Comedies: The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon and The Beauty Queen of Leenane

In this darkly comic Irish tale, 40-year-old spinster Maureen Folan is good and stuck in the house she grew up in, caring for her aging mother, Mag. Mag is a nightmare and their mutual antagonism hits a new level when Maureen's first, and possibly final, chance at love suddenly appears. Who’s most vulnerable? Who’s scheming the most? Who’s crazy? Is anyone? The laughably dysfunctional relationship of these two isolated souls in rural Ireland comes to a boiling point when the possibility of romance, or even survival, sets in motion a train of tragically funny yet heartbreaking events.

EPSG:4326

The Beauty Queen of Leenane

Kent County Theatre Guild

The fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm are turned on their heads in this fast-paced, rollicking ride as two narrators and several actors attempt to combine all 209 stories ranging from classics like Snow White, Cinderella, and Hansel and Gretel to more bizarre, obscure stories like The Devil's Grandmother and The Girl Without Hands. A wild, free-form comedy with lots of audience participation and madcap fun!

The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon

The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon by Don Zolidis

Catherine has inherited her late father’s mathematical brilliance, but she is haunted by the fear that she might also share his debilitating mental illness. She has spent years caring for her now-deceased father, and upon his death, she feels left alone to pick up the pieces of her life without him.

Proof

Proof by David Auburn

Bob, Sylvia, Victor, and Renee are the last four actors standing when a food poisoning outbreak sidelines most of the cast on the opening night of the Hartland Community Theatre's holiday production, Shakespeare's classic, The Winter's Tale. But that's not the only setback: Sylvia has just discovered a boatload of red ink in the theatre group's ledger. With impending financial ruin, a shortage of cast members, and an expectant audience just outside the doors, can these four amateur thespians concoct some kind of holiday entertainment in time to save their theatre? Thanks to the ensuing violent collision between everything Christmas and everything Shakespeare, you will never think of Shakespeare or Christmas in quite the same way again.

Scrooge MacBeth by David MacGregor

Aboveboard takes place in Nick's New York apartment. When food starts disappearing from his refrigerator, he immediately suspects his best friend Milo, a bumbling magician who lives down the hall. But Milo refuses to confess, so Nick installs a camera to catch the culprit in the act—and finds an unlikely trespasser has been secretly living in his apartment for nearly a month. When the video hits the internet, the surprises multiply in this sweet, funny story about magic, misunderstanding, and running out of milk.

Aboveboard

Mary Gray is the prettiest girl in Deer Lick, Missouri, and shy Hugh Gregory loves her as much as she loves him. Sally, Mary’s mother, is happy for her daughter and convinces Mary’s father, John, that Hugh is perfect for Mary. Unfortunately, John does not get along with his rich brother David, and on the eve of the wedding, David reveals that he is leaving his entire fortune to Mary in his will—on the condition that she never marry Hugh! No sooner is the ink dry than David is found dead. Who done it? 

A Murder, A Mystery & A Marriage

Fanny and Willa— the Wild sisters of Winedale, Virginia, — and their frustratingly quirky sister-in-law Johnnie Faye, are already accustomed to supporting one another through thick and thin, but they really need each other now. Fanny is experiencing a hilariously inappropriate reaction to her 60th birthday, while Willa is so stressed out from her nursing job that she resorts to vodka and speed-knitting to cope. Johnnie Faye, determined to put her year of fraught widowhood behind her, is desperately trying to find a man—preferably a man with a house, since hers is somewhere at the bottom of a Florida sinkhole. With equal doses of hilarity and heart, these extraordinary women come up with delightful and surprisingly unorthodox ways to clear the clutter from their lives, their homes and their relationships so they can move on. 

The Wild Women of Winedale

It's Halloween night, but everyone is dropping their masks. When two couples drink a strange blue Peruvian wine together, the evening turns eventful as their traditions and their relationships to one another begin to unravel. Will the truth set them free or is it another trap to escape? A dark comedy about the perils of honesty.

Vino Veritas

Mr. Broadbent's innovative "House of the Future" has remained unsold for four years, probably because most of the innovations of the future fail to work properly. Determined to unload his white elephant, the developer has invited prospective buyers Fred and Gladys to stay in the house. He’s hired his maintenance man to be on hand behind the scenes to make running repairs as necessary and has even bribed two members of his staff to pose as a married couple renting the house. With a malfunctioning automatic vacuum/trash collector that keeps destroying everyone's clothes and almost everybody pretending to be someone they're not, this “naughty but nice” Christmas farce will have you ho-ho-ho’ing till the very end!

No Sex Please, It's Christmas

A smash comedy hit in London and New York, this much-revived classic from the playwright of Private Lives concerns fussy, cantankerous novelist Charles Condomine, who has remarried but finds himself haunted (literally) by the ghost of his late first wife, Elvira. Clever, insistent, and well aware of Charles' shortcomings, Elvira is called up by a visiting “happy medium,” the eccentric and flighty Madame Arcati. As everyone's personalities clash, one is left to wonder who will be the next to “pass over,” or whether everyone will live happily ever after!

Kent County Theatre Guild

11 - 26 Jul, 2025

The Beauty Queen of Leenane

Apr 25 - May 10, 2025

The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon

Articles & News

Kent County Theatre Guild