Here's How Salem Residents Can Attend A Free Stage Performance In The Witch City

SALEM, MA — Salem residents are invited to a free performance of the Shakespeare comedy "As You Like It" as part of the Salem State University Creative and Performing Arts series later this month.

The production will play in the Sophia Gordon Center for the final two weekends of April, with a free Salem Night scheduled for April 25.

The play, believed to have been written around 1599, was originally written in response to a popular subgenre of theatre at the time: the pastoral play, where the simple life of the countryside would be
depicted alongside the complexity of city life. It represents a riff on that subgenre akin to how "Scary Movie" was a response to the "Scream" series of horror movies.

With the play's setting enhanced by modern tropes like Limp Bizkit and WWE, it's the modernized setting that casts the 1599 work into the contemporary era that’s likely to trigger the most conversation once the curtain falls and the audience returns to reality.

"Placing the production in a more contemporary vein will hopefully make it a little more recognizable, that it isn’t just a play about people being silly in the woods,” said Director and Salem State visiting lecturer Esme Allen. "At the heart of this production is people escaping a very sudden oppression and finding peace for a short time, and then very quickly leaving it."

The performance will play across two weekends at 365 Lafayette Street:

• Friday, April 18 and Saturday, April 19, at 7:30 p.m.;
• Friday, April 25 and Saturday, April 26, at 7:30 p.m.; and
• Sunday, April 27, at 2 p.m.

Tickets are $15 for general admission, $10 for seniors, and free for allstudents with a student ID and those under 18. Admission is free for all current Salem State students, faculty, and staff across all
showings, and for Salem residents the night of April 25 (show ID at the door for admission).

For tickets, visit the Salem State University Ticket Office.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)