A Broken Umbrella Strikes Westville Again

A Broken Umbrella Theatre Company delights in site-specific productions that bring to light darkened corners of New Haven history. Last Halloween they staged a creepy new play Vaudevillain, about an actual Westville murder case from the early 20^th century, for which they led audiences around and through the newly renovated Lyric Hall in present-day Westville.

With the ghostly holiday coming up again, ABUTC is bringing a different sort of heat this time. Play With Matches, slated for a three-weekend, 15-performance run Oct. 21-23 and 28-30 and Nov. 4-6, concerns mid-19^th century New Haven-based inventor Ebenezer Beecher, developer of a machine that made wooden matches. His home in Westville (which morphed into the Mitchell branch of New Haven Public Library) had secret panels and trap doors built into it, according to an inspiring account in Colin M. Caplan’s book Westville: Tales from a Connecticut Hamlet.

Play With Matches is not being performed in the library, however. The company has found an abandoned factory space ideal for the endeavor: the old Greist Manufacturing Plantat 446A Blake Street.

Reservations are already being accepted here. Performances will be Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays at both 3 & 8 p.m. Advance tickets are $20; day-of-show tix are available one hour before each performance for $15 ($10 for students and those under 17); and Sunday matinees are pay-what-you-can.