Unless you live in the Wayland area, this little theatre is probably easy to miss. It is indeed tiny -- basically a house-sized theater -- and though I grew up in the area I have to admit I'd never heard of this place. Devoted local theater fans would be better suited to talk at length about Vokes, I'm just a performance attendee.
Think of Vokes as Boston's Off-Broadway, or Off-Off-Broadway? Certainly the talent is not lacking here. The cast is an eclectic mix and some are a lot more fine-tuned than others but together they do put on a thoroughly enjoyable production.
Don't let my 3-star review turn you off if you were planning to go. Again, there is no problem with the acting or performance (which is most of the reason why you'd go, right?) The only reason I feel obligated to give this place a lukewarm rating is, unfortunately, the venue itself.
The Vokes theater was built as a tiny private theater way back around 1900 or something like that. And it seems to get more ticket sales in that tiny space, the venue has crammed more seats in the theater than can possibly fit. I felt more sardined than I do when I fly coach sitting in that seat. Compounding that there is, I am pretty sure, either a bad dust or mildew problem at the theater and my allergies gave me a serious migrane by the time we hit intermission, which was a damn shame as I was really enjoying the show. (It's an old building, you can't really help that sort of thing, but had I known I would have taken some antihistamine beforehand or something.)
So anyone who is particularly sensitive to dust or mildew, please take note if you are seeing a performance here that you should come prepared. And if you see a Saturday matinee, no surprise, the audience does tend to skew pretty elderly (very strong, inexpensive perfumes on top of the dust & mildew, oy).
If you read my other reviews you'll notice cramped seating + allergens are not the sort of thing I've ever addressed in another review, but it was something that so strongly affected me that I feel obligated to mention it, especially if I'm going to mention to other people to go see a show here. I totally recognize that this is a small, independent theater and there's no way they'd have the cash to address something like allergens, so just take some claritin and a few tissues and by the end of it you'll be fine.
Major plus: You really can't beat the ticket prices here. Also the theater itself is a pretty cool time-capsule with all its 1900-ish actor/performer photographs on the wall. read more
