Battery Park

A determined young woman doggedly pursues the uninterested object of her affections—whose hand in marriage she has been granted by a grateful king—in Shakespeare's rarely produced comedy, a romance so problematic that its title verges on sarcasm. Stephen Burdman directs this peripatetic production for his industrious New York Classical Theatre; the cast of eight includes Anique Clements as the dauntless Helena, Paul Deo Jr. as the heedless Bertram, Karel Heřmánek Jr. as the feckless Parolles and Nick Salamone and Carine Montbertran as well-intentioned nobles. The show kicks off in Central Park (June 3–22) before moving east to Carl Schurz Park (June 24–29) and south to Battery Park (July 1–6). Attendance is free, but reservations are suggested.

Despite its name, Shakespeare Downtown does not limit itself to Shakespearean works. This summer, it returns to the Battery's Castle Clinton with a very rare staging of Tennessee Williams's 1978 play—adapted from his own screenplay for the 1956 film Baby Doll, which was itself inspired by a pair of one-acts he wrote ten years earlier. Like the movie, the play centers on the owner of a failing cotton gin in rural Mississippi, his teenage bride in a not-yet-consummated marriage, her dotty aunt and his principal rival in the cotton business. Geoffrey Horne directs the production, whose cast includes Billie Andersson, Juan Pablo Toro, Elizabeth Ruf and Saundra Jones.