Vokes Theatre

I have gone to the Vokes Theatre to see various plays since I was a child growing up in neighboring Marlborough. In fact, it was the first place I ever saw live theatre. This quaint little gem of a place is easy to miss if you’ve never heard of it, but very easy to get to on route 20 (Boston Post Road.)
Four plays a year are offered (one usually being a musical.) I’ve purchased season tickets in the past, and may again in the future, but I do like being able to decide if I’m interested in a particular show or not, so purchasing individually is also a nice option. The cast and crew work incredibly hard, and the place is run by dedicated volunteers.
When my daughter reached her pre-​teen years, the Vokes was one of the first places I took her to see a live play, so long live theater! We’ve turned it in to a tradition: in March she buys us tickets to see the current play for my birthday, and in July I return the favor and buy her tickets for us to see the available play then. Lovely mother/​daughter bonding activity and a great way to support local theater in what has to be one of the most adorable (and small) theaters in the area. Thank you Vokes Players and staff for all your hard work and the wonderful memories we’ve enjoyed and plan to continue enjoying in the future!

A friend and I have purchased subscription tickets for the full season at the Vokes Theater for years. Unfortunately, we have walked out of 2 plays in the last two seasons! In their effort to show current /​avant guard plays, their choices have included plays with absurd and unpleasant story lines and gratuitous bad language. For the 2016 season, we selected only two of the plays being offered and sent payment by personal check in October. I received an email quite a while ago saying our tickets would be sent to us. As of February 20, 5 months after my check was mailed, I have not received the tickets and my check has not been cashed. After NUMEROUS emails, I was told my check would be destroyed and tickets would be mailed out gratis Tickets have never been received. I understand that the Vokes is run by volunteers, but there is definitely something wrong when they cannot cash a check or mail tickets for 5 months! As the quality of the plays selected has gone way down, I would recommend picking a good movie instead of the Vokes Playhouse!

Unless you live in the Wayland area, this little theatre is probably easy to miss. It is indeed tiny — basically a house-​sized theater — and though I grew up in the area I have to admit I’d never heard of this place. Devoted local theater fans would be better suited to talk at length about Vokes, I’m just a performance attendee.
Think of Vokes as Boston’s Off-​Broadway, or Off-​Off-​Broadway? Certainly the talent is not lacking here. The cast is an eclectic mix and some are a lot more fine-​tuned than others but together they do put on a thoroughly enjoyable production.
Don’t let my 3-​star review turn you off if you were planning to go. Again, there is no problem with the acting or performance (which is most of the reason why you’d go, right?) The only reason I feel obligated to give this place a lukewarm rating is, unfortunately, the venue itself.
The Vokes theater was built as a tiny private theater way back around 1900 or something like that. And it seems to get more ticket sales in that tiny space, the venue has crammed more seats in the theater than can possibly fit. I felt more sardined than I do when I fly coach sitting in that seat. Compounding that there is, I am pretty sure, either a bad dust or mildew problem at the theater and my allergies gave me a serious migrane by the time we hit intermission, which was a damn shame as I was really enjoying the show. (It’s an old building, you can’t really help that sort of thing, but had I known I would have taken some antihistamine beforehand or something.)
So anyone who is particularly sensitive to dust or mildew, please take note if you are seeing a performance here that you should come prepared. And if you see a Saturday matinée, no surprise, the audience does tend to skew pretty elderly (very strong, inexpensive perfumes on top of the dust & mildew, oy).
If you read my other reviews you’ll notice cramped seating + allergens are not the sort of thing I’ve ever addressed in another review, but it was something that so strongly affected me that I feel obligated to mention it, especially if I’m going to mention to other people to go see a show here. I totally recognize that this is a small, independent theater and there’s no way they’d have the cash to address something like allergens, so just take some claritin and a few tissues and by the end of it you’ll be fine.
Major plus: You really can’t beat the ticket prices here. Also the theater itself is a pretty cool time-​capsule with all its 1900-​ish actor/​performer photographs on the wall.