April 5-28: Newton Nomadic Theater presents "Colder Than Here"

“Its bittersweet combination of morbid black comedy and heartrending pathos is a pleasure.” – British Theatre Guide

“…Far from flinching in the face of death, [Laura Wade] explores how we might make peace with it.” – The Guardian

Newton Nomadic Theater presents “Colder Than Here,” British playwright Laura Wade’s dark but funny look at death and dying from Friday, April 5 through Sunday, April 28 at various venues in Newton. Tickets are $25. For information and tickets visit Newton Nomadic Theater.

New York Times bestselling author Nicole Galland directs the intimate production featuring Noni Lewis as Myra, a middle-aged mom with bone cancer who faces the final act of her life with the kind of organizational aplomb she never applied to running her household. Matt Winberg, Abigail Dickson, and Ellie Brelis play the husband and daughters trying to come to terms with Myra’s impending death. Her controlling obsession with planning her own funeral brings her family together on a rollercoaster ride of hilarity and emotion. Busted boilers, biodegradable coffins, and fierce family bonding are all part of Wade’s harrowingly moving journey through a loved one’s final chapter.

Performance details:

∙ Friday, April 5-Saturday, April 6, 7:30 p.m. at Sacco-Pettee Mill, Clarks Building, 156 Oak St., Newton Upper Falls. Tickets available here.

∙ Friday, April 12-Saturday, April 13, 7:30 p.m. at Waban Community Library, 1608 Beacon St., Newton. Tickets available here.

∙ Friday, April 19-Saturday, April 20, 7:30 p.m. at Gregorian Rugs, 2284 Washington St., Newton Lower Falls. Tickets available here.

∙ Friday, April 26-Saturday, April 27, 7:30 p.m. at The Siegel-St. John home, 160 Allen Ave., Waban. Tickets available here.

∙ Sunday, April 28, 4 p.m. at Dunn-Gaherin’s Food and Spirit, 344 Elliot St., Newton. Tickets available here.

Nicole Galland, director, is a New York Times bestselling author whose novelistic range runs the gamut from historical novels to contemporary rom-com to speculative fiction. Her books include “The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O” (with Neal Stephenson), “The Fool’s Tale,” “Revenge of the Rose,” “Crossed,” “Godiva,” “Stepdog,” and “I, Iago.” Her newest novel, the 2018 “On the Same Page,” is set in her hometown of Martha’s Vineyard. She has been a theater director and dramaturg for many productions and companies, including Shakespeare for the Masses. She is currently writing the sequel to “D.O.D.O.” Visit her at https://www.nicolegalland.com/.

Noni Lewis is a Welsh actress and voiceover artist currently based in Boston. Having spent many years as a stage and screen performer, in more recent years she has enjoyed voice acting from her home studio. Noni’s previous Newton Nomadic credits include “God of Carnage,” “Dracula,” “Molly Sweeney,” and “All in the Timing.” She has appeared in several editions of the Christmas Revels, as well as “Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Aardman Animations/Dreamworks); poetry readings, plays and audiobooks for BBC Radio Four; “Macbeth” and “Twelfth Night” (Orange Tree Theatre, London), and “Odysseus’s Journey” (Bristol Old Vice.” She has also appeared as Tessa in the Welsh language soap opera “Pobol y Cwm” and can be heard on radio and television advertisements across Wales, on websites, phone messages, apps, computer games, audio trails, in museums, and even lifts through her work at http://welshvoiceover.co.uk/.

Matt Winberg most recently appeared as a stern Swedish dignitary/father, an archetypal Finnish god of smithery, and a drunken Claudius-from-the-Bronx in the 2018 Christmas Revels. He is thrilled to be back with Newton Nomadic for "Colder Than Here" — his fifth production with the company. Prior NNT shows: "Dracula the Bloody Truth," "A Christmas Carol," "All in the Timing," and "Doubt." Hailing from Ithaca, NY, Matt performed regularly there in all manner of plays, readings, musicals, radio productions, and industrial films prior to relocating to Boston in 2016. He received his acting training at various studios in New York City and Chicago, and as a member of Icarus Theatre Ensemble in Ithaca. Matt also has a background in video production with a focus on short-form documentary and educational films.

Abigail Dickson’s stage credits include performing as Borachio in Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s 2018 production of “Much Ado About Nothing,” as well as Newton Nomadic’s “Behind the Scenes.” As a teenager she founded Youthquake Theater and helmed more than a dozen productions of Shakespeare. Other roles include “The Secret Garden” (Mary Lennox), “Into the Woods” (Little Red), and “The Importance of Being Earnest” (Lady Bracknell). She is currently a Women and Gender Studies Major at UMass Boston’s Honors College, and pursues a double life as a drag king named Dick Swagger. Visit her at www.theabigaildickson.com.

Ellie Brelis, making her Newton Nomadic debut, has performed with with companies and at venues including Underground Railway Theatre, Boston Actors Theatre, Powerhouse Theater, Boston Playwrights Theatre, and Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse. She holds a BFA in Acting from Emerson College.

The Newton Nomadic Theater is dedicated to producing simply staged, high quality theater in interesting and unconventional theater spaces in and around Newton. In between theatrical productions the theater also regularly hosts Nomad Story Slams, Moth radio inspired nights of storytelling.