The Apollinaire Theatre Company in Chelsea has a track record any company on the other side of the Tobin Bridge would envy. Aside from putting Chelsea on the theatrical map (Most of us wouldn’t be going to Chelsea otherwise), Apollinaire finds the smartest, hippest plays around and makes them crackle. Danielle Fauteux Jacques is the genius behind it all. She directs, produces and she founded the operation, converting an historic, one hundred year old post office building into the miraculous Chelsea Theatre Works.
This month she’s at the helm of a searing comedy called SMUDGE by SNL’s Rachel Axler about a couple who definitely were not expecting their newborn to be connected to tubes for the rest of their lives. Yes, it’s a comedy---with serious ramifications. Jacques sets just the right surreal tone for the piece, aided and abetted by Alison Meirowitz as the astonished new mother, by Chris LaVoie as the fiercely protective father and best of all, by Michael Fisher as the hilarious, insensitive, gloriously inappropriate uncle.
Jacques will be receiving the Kenneth A. MacDonald Award for excellence this week at the IRNE Awards. As one of her former actors put it, “It’s about time she was honored.” We concur.