MANCHESTER, NH – theatre KAPOW launches its 14th season and return to the stage with the world premiere of A.J. DItty’s new play, The Bøyg. The show will be performed at two venues: The Stockbridge Theatre in Derry, NH from September 24 through 26, and the Charlestown Working Theater in Charlestown, MA, on October 1 and 2, 2021.
It’s 1942 and the cultural elite of Norway have been imprisoned by Nazi occupiers in the Grini Concentration Camp on the outskirts of Oslo. As they try to survive their imprisonment and keep their sanity, they decide to stage a production of Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt to raise morale just in time for Christmas. But the arrival of a new bunkmate to the barrack brings unforeseen complications, causing the men to reexamine their relationship to their country, their art, and themselves. How can you create art in the depths of despair? And how can you ever overcome the brutal embrace of the Bøyg.
theatre KAPOW commissioned this new play three years ago, but the original production was postponed due to the pandemic. Playwright A.J. Ditty and the company took the extra time to do readings of the play, continue its development and make revisions. “The Bøyg seeks to be that balm for the wounds inflicted over this, our long, harrowing crucible of being locked in our homes, staring at screens, longing for connection when the world outside is burning,” said Ditty. “It’s a defiant scream into the void, that no matter how terrible things get, we’ll be here, painting our paintings, making our marionettes, playing our plays. That in this overwhelming darkness, sometimes all it takes is reaching out your hand and finding someone else’s beside you, grabbing on tight and saying: We are here. We are here. We are here.”
The result is a production three years in the making that speaks so clearly to 2021. “What I love about this play is its specificity,” said director Matt Cahoon. “By choosing to focus on one very small group of men, in a particular locale, at a certain moment in history, A.J. has managed to tap into something universal about humanity. It’s a play about a bunch of guys in Norway in 1942, and yet somehow it is remarkably resonant today.”
The Bøyg features Lisa Boyett, Carey Cahoon, Peter Josephson, Rachael Chapin Longo, Molly Lane Parker, Sabrina Schlegel-Mejia, Rebecca Tucker, and Nicholas Wilder. The show is directed by tKAPOW Artistic Director Matt Cahoon. Longtime tKAPOW collaborator Tayva Young will be providing the lighting design, Jake Hudgins is returning as composer, and Dan Daly is working with tKAPOW for the first time as Scenic Designer.
Performances are September 24 and 25 at 7:30 p.m. and September 26 at 2 p.m. at the Stockbridge Theatre in Derry, NH. Performances then continue on October 1 at 7.30 p.m. and October 2 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at the Charlestown Working Theater in Charlestown, MA. Advanced tickets are $20 for Adults and $15 for Seniors (62 and older) or Students. For the safety and comfort of all who attend our shows, all patrons must present either proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test in order to enter the theatre. Visit For tickets or more information, visit www.tkapow.com.
About A.J. Ditty
A.J. Ditty is an actor/playwright/slash-mark enthusiast currently living in Brooklyn. His plays include B.B.’s Inferno (The PIT, dir. Tom Costello and Felicia Lobo), Eloise Parker Goes to the Moon (Crashbox Theater’s Read. Play. Write. series, dir. Kristin McCarthy Parker), Heart of Duckness (Pipeline Theater Company’s Bonfire series, dir. Kevin Hourigan), and “Rubiella: A Ghost Story” (Pipeline’s Matchstick series, dir. Felicia Lobo). His Zoom play, “All Things Considered It Was Probably the Most Productive Meeting The Escondido Unified School District PTA Ever Had” had its premiere at Virtual Rule of 7×7 in July of 2020 through The Tank, recently won The 46th Annual Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival, and will be published by Samuel French in 2022. He is a proud alumnus of Pipeline Theater Company’s PlayLab and is currently a member of Decent Company, which is a collective dedicated to the advancement of the theatrical writer/performer.
