May 14, 2024 - "Touching the Void", Colm Tóibín, and The Plastic Bag Store

Climbing a mountain is a metaphor frequently used to describe something that seems insurmountable. For the Chelsea-based Apollinaire Theatre Company, they are both figuratively and literally climbing a mountain in their latest production “Touching the Void.” The play involves a climbable mountain, a Scottish pub, a base camp, and the ever-present void. Two of the actors starring in this production, Parker Jennings and Patrick O’Konis, join us to talk about taking theater to new heights. Then author Colm Tóibín joins us. He doesn’t care for sequels. He thinks of them as kind of a literary copout.  But 15 years after he published his critically acclaimed novel “Brooklyn,” he has written a follow up: the novel “Long Island.”  He joins us to talk about the hold that his protagonist, Eilis Lacey has had on him. Finally, do you want plastic or plastic?  You have only one option at “The Plastic Bag Store,”  an immersive art experience now open at MASS MoCA, presented in association with Williamstown Theatre Festival.  We talk to the creative force behind this, artist Robin Frohardt who has found multiple uses for single use plastics.