Instead of milking the holiday season for as much nog as they can muster, Apollinaire Theatre Company is going the opposite route and serving up a taste of summer in the thick of winter. Beginning a two-week run the day after Christmas, “Midsummer”—a new Scottish play that received critical acclaim and completed a lengthy, successful tour in Europe with the original cast— follows a pair of thirtysomethings who definitely shouldn’t sleep together, but, of course, do.

Pulling themes from the play’s namesake Shakespearean dream and infused with dark humor, “Midsummer” is a romantic comedy with teeth. Or an “anti-romantic romance,” as director Danielle Fauteux Jacques
 calls it. “It’s on the lighter side for Apollinaire, for what we do. But it’s got enough of the quirkiness and the more complex colors than your typical romantic comedy … It’s a very Scottish play with a very Scottish sensibility.”

To crank up the immediacy of the production, the audience will be seated on the stage on three sides of the couple, played by Brooks Reeves—fresh off of “Bent” and ahead of “Shockheaded Peter”—and Courtland Jones—last in Bridge Rep’s “The Real Thing.” The arrangement allows the audience to be up close and personal as the duet spar, suffer through hangovers, and experiment with Japanese rope bondage. “Hardly saccharinely sweet or morally uplifting,” says Jacques, and therefore it’ll make the perfect antidote to the over-saturated seasonal offerings.

MIDSUMMER. CHELSEA THEATRE WORKS, 189 WINNISIMMET ST., CHELSEA. PERFORMANCES EXTENDED THROUGH SAT 1.17. FOR SHOWTIMES AND TICKET PRICES, VISIT APOLLINAIRETHEATRE.COM

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SUSANNA JACKSON

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