Tragedy, followed by comedy

As previously noted in this space, there’s serious tragedy in the near future for Resurrection Theatre Company. Its Macbeth Resurrected, featuring a female Macbeth (and we hear they’re being quite serious about the title of the play, referring to it as “that Macky play” even outside the theater) opens February 18. But the company is following that with some serious (and seriously grown-up) comedy: An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein, scheduled for May. If all you know of Shel Silverstein is The Giving Tree and Where the Sidewalk Ends, you should know he had a much, uh, cruder sensibility as well. In fact, he famously wrote a number of songs for Dr. Hook (before they went pop), with titles like “Don’t Give a Dose to the One You Love Most” and “Freakin’ at the Freakers Ball.” It went, “The greatest of the sadists and the masochists, too / screaming “Please hit me” and “I’ll hit you!” Don’t bring the kids for this one!