Federico Muchnik often injects local politics into canonical plays. Last year, the playwright channeled his frustration about the size of the 21 Walden Square Road affordable housing redevelopment into an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s “An Ideal Husband.”Now he’s turned to “King Lear,” a whimsical retelling of the play from the perspective of the Fool — recast, in Muchnik’s hands, as a Yiddish-speaking Jew.
The play, which he’s calling, “Hot Java, The Singing Llama,” will be performed as a staged reading at the Cambridge Main Library April 11.
Muchnik, who was born in Italy but has lived in Cambridge since he was 5, is best known for his hyperlocal documentaries “Massachusetts Avenue” and “Open Space,” about Danehy Park. He’s also got a couple of novels (“Lucky Tom,” “The Film Academy of Seekonk, RI”) under his belt. And Muchnik took “An Ideal Husband’ to London, where he booked a black box theater, an exhilarating experience, he said.
“Hot Java” began as a few lines of dialogue between two fictional Somerville filmmakers, Isaac Plovnick and Jake Miller, whom Muchnik invented. “It was fascinating to start off with just a few lines and enlarge that into a full-fledged play,” Muchnik said in a recent interview. Isaac and Jake, B-film producers, get caught up in a scheme to make a movie featuring Jackie Winston, a fading Hollywood diva, which will be bankrolled by wealthy Ira “Come on Down” Melnick, owner of a chain of tire stores. Winston, of course, has other ideas.
“It’s an exploration of the creative process, and how it leads to unintended consequences,” Muchnik said. The play is also a poke at the film industry.
Paul Melendy and Amanda Collins, who are part of the noteworthy cast for “Hot Java,” were also part of the earlier play. They will be joined by local luminaries Karen MacDonald, Mark Linehan, Lewis Wheeler and Rick Park.
You may be wondering what a singing llama has to do with a retelling of King Lear. We won’t say nothing, because of course nothing comes of nothing, and Muchnik says there is something. You’ll have to come see it for yourself.
“Hot Java, the Singing Llama” runs from 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. April 11 at the Cambridge Main Library, 449 Broadway, Mid-Cambridge. Free but tickets required. Tickets available here.
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