Lena Takes the Cake, or Man with the Draggin’ Tattoo

press release: Each Syttende Mai, the Stoughton Village Players explore new ways a small Wisconsin town can survive with so many “less-than-genius” townspeople. This year’s production is no exception. Lena Takes the Cake or Man with the Draggin’ Tattoo starts with an unusual funeral and ends with a disastrous bake-off as Ole, Lena and friends make one bad decision after another. Ole’s Aunt Hildur used the same award-winning recipe for years but, now that she has passed, some of the ladies in town want to find it and use it for themselves. Their plans assume that Ole may be the source and their extra attention to markings on his body is misinterpreted by their husbands. The resulting confusion is observed and further complicated by previous and new mayors, business owners and our ace local investigative reporting staff.

Directed by Tony Hill and Gary Smithback (with a set by Jeff Horton and Margaret Jamison), the show has all of the parts that audiences have come to love: horrible puns and wordplay, creative set pieces, cool technical and visual elements and, most of all, characters that try to do the right thing but do it in all the wrong ways… with Norwegian-ish accents that defy description.

Shows are: Thursday and Friday, May 17-18, 7:00 and 8:30; Saturday, May 19, 2:30, 4:00 and 7:00. Tickets are $13 (general admission) and available at McGlynn Pharmacy and StoughtonVillagePlayers.org