‘Monkey House’ at Phoenix

“We were wanting to do a comedy this year …” ShadowApe Theatre Company’s Michael Lamirand smiles. He’s talking about the genesis of ShadowApe’s new adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s beloved short story collection, Welcome to the Monkey House. Lamirand knows that calling this work a comedy falls a little short of the mark. Sure, there are laughs — lots of them — but adapting Vonnegut’s vision for the stage also means capturing his surrealism, moralism and social consciousness, which adds up to a certain darkness.

Robert K. Johansen in rehearsal for ‘Welcome to the Monkey House,’ which is being presented by ShadowApe Theatre Company. The show opens this weekend at the Phoenix Theatre; 635-PLAY.

“One of the brilliant things about putting this work on the stage,” actress Constance Macy says, “is that you can take the audience down that path, laughing hysterically, and then slap them across the face with something really dark and creepy.”

“We try to get it all,” says Lamirand, a lifelong Vonnegut fan who first brought the idea of doing Vonnegut’s fiction to the rest of the ShadowApe company. ShadowApe is no stranger to turning literature into performance. Just as their tremendously successful version of Gorey Stories, an adaptation of the short works of Edward Gorey, managed to evoke that artist’s unique view of the world, their take on Vonnegut promises to provide audiences with a fresh point of entry, what Lamirand calls “a dream form,” to a selection of the writer’s most popular short stories.

Published in 1968, Welcome to the Monkey House collected 25 short stories that Vonnegut had been writing since 1950. In the years since, the collection has proven to be remarkably durable, serving as the basis for an award-winning radio drama, a television series for the Showtime cable network and the title for a recent album by rock group The Dandy Warhols.

For their adaptation, each member of the ShadowApe company read the stories and picked their favorites, winnowing the total number for dramatization down to six, including, “Harrison Bergeron,” “Long Walk to Forever,” “All the King’s Horses,” “Adam” and “The Euphio Question.”

One of Vonnegut’s most distinctive literary achievements is his voice, whose character he attributes to his Indianapolis roots. “We’ve kept very true to his voice,” Lamirand says. “In fact, we were all adamant about not changing his words, not changing dialogue, leaving it as it was. None of us was really crazy about putting narratives in, but we thought we’ve got to have his voice in there.”

Other artists involved in this production include set designer Robert Koharchik, lighting designer Ryan Koharchik, costume designer Joel Ebarb and actors Robert K. Johansen, Andy Ahrens, Lauren Morris Bertram, Frederick Marshall, Jolene Mentink Moffatt and Robert Neal. Welcome to the Monkey House will be produced on the main stage at the Phoenix Theatre. Performances are Aug. 19-29, Thursdays and Sundays at 7 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Tickets are $22.50 (those under 24 may purchase discounted tickets). For information or to purchase tickets call 635-PLAY.