Arts-Entertainment
On November 14th at 7:30 pm, The Blue Slipper Theatre launches its 2025-2026 season of four mainstage productions with their fall showing of The Aliens, a play written by Annie Baker and directed by Sarah Sherman. A sharp and funny drama about small town New England, friendship, ritual and death, The Aliens shows three men navigating the difficulties of connection as they try—and fail—to care for one another and ask for the care that they need.
Professional slackers and best friends KJ and Jasper spend their days talking life and Charles Bukowski outside the back of a small coffee shop in Vermont. Seventeen-year-old Evan is eking out his summer working at the cafe. When he meets the two disillusioned young men, Evan is drawn to their world of magic mushrooms, philosophical musings and great-bands-that never-were. (KJ and Jasper perform several oddball, original songs throughout the show). Gentle, engaging and deeply funny, the Denver Post has hailed this play “deceptively simple” and “utterly accomplished.”
The Aliens opened at the Bush Theatre, London in September of 2010; the world premiere was held at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, New York in April of that same year. Annie Baker is a writer best known for her 2014 Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Flick, as well as her acclaimed 2023 film Janet Planet starring Julianne Nicholson. Baker’s The Aliens puts modern America under the microscope by asking what happened to the generation who never grew up. More specifically, the play questions the outcomes for men constrained by poverty and/or psychological and emotional difficulties who have little resources or support to navigate various aspects of American life.
“The Aliens explores disenfranchised males who find a shared connection in their feelings of being alienated social outcasts—yet their struggles for purpose and self-fulfillment are presented subtly, and dare I say with love, and I sincerely believe this work has the capacity to open minds and hearts over the challenges many young men silently face.” - Director Sarah Sherman.
“Gentle and extraordinarily beautiful; inordinately delicate. Annie Baker may just have the subtlest way with exposition of anyone writing for the theater today.” - The New York Times
The Blue Slipper Theatre, Livingston’s original community theatre, has been a cornerstone of local arts since its founding in 1964 by Don Johns. What began with traveling performances at venues like the Livingston Golf & Country Club and Winans School soon found a permanent home in the historic 1901 Livingston Post building at 113 East Callender Street. Renamed the Blue Slipper Theatre in 1965, the company has remained dedicated to showcasing live theatre in a setting as unique as its history. With just 57 seats, our intimate space offers a one-of-a-kind experience for audiences and actors alike, perfectly suited for compelling, close-up performances.
The Aliens is generously sponsored by Neptunes Eatery and runs November 14th – 16th and 21st – 23rd. Showtimes are Friday and Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 3 pm. Reserve tickets at www.blueslipper.org or call the box office at 406-222-7720.