Three Cape Cod brothers - and rock musicians - set writer's block anguish to music

It’s a common theme. A writer is stuck down a blind alley and can’t seem to pull from his gray matter the words that will get him out of that spot. All who have called themselves writers know just how deep you sometimes have to dig to make your prose (or poetry) sing.

That’s the theme of a new musical called "Archibald Avery," by three young Cape Cod playwrights/rock musicians, Macklin, Paddo and Seamus Devine, who have literally set the writer’s quest to music. It all began when Macklin (who graduated from high school just a year ago) had some extra time in study hall after finishing Latin homework.

“It all started with some poems. It’s always been a joke between us that you never trust a man with two first names. So, I created a guy named Archibald Avery and began to write about him as he dredges up some old childhood fears. We’ve all had those fears of the old man or woman in the scary house down the street and think the fear is buried .… until it’s not,” said Macklin.

According to director Maura Hanlon (who also happens to be the boys’ mother) it’s perfectly natural that her sons would weave a Brothers Grimm-like tale into their musical storytelling. “We live out in the woods next to an old cemetery near where they played as kids, and they were always making up stories about the people buried there,” she said.

Enter Seamus, whose “first medium is music,” according to brother Macklin.

“I just naturally think about how something should feel sonically,” Seamus said. “I believe every person or idea can be associated with a piece of music that perfectly defines it. Putting all those sonic expressions together for a show was a new experience.”

As an example of how a character can be defined by music, Macklin noted that, “Archibald exists in a minor waltz. He thinks of himself as very sophisticated, but really he’s a little quirky.”

In total, the show has 23 musical numbers, ranging from Archibald’s waltz to pieces with a folk-song feel and the harmonic sounds of a chord progression to accompany a chase scene. As a demonstration, Macklin and Paddo pick up guitars and Seamus sits behind a drum set to perform a song about childhood with a folkish feel and lyrics including “when you had bubblegum on the sole of your shoe” and “your first mate was a bee.”

Play is a response to the COVID era

According to the Cape Rep’s producing artistic director Janine Perry, who commissioned the Devines to write the play, it is the perfect answer to her search for “ways to showcase artists during the COVID era. The last three years were so difficult, and I felt we needed something new and different. These days it’s so hard to get really excited about anything.”

Perry made the decision after hearing the lyrics for the trio’s songs in the show “The November Project,” one of two Rep shows that have featured the threesome. (They also performed in “Rock the Bard: Midsummer.”)

She goes on to say, “There is a clarity of meaning and sense of authenticity in their work that is really unique. I’m just overwhelmed by their talent; I knew that they would create something that would be an entirely fresh and imaginative theater experience.”

The show will run April 12 through May 7, Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m. at the Cape Rep Theatre just off Route 6A in Brewster. Tickets: $40, $25 for ages 25 and younger.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape brothers create 'Archibald Avery' at Cape Rep Theatre in Brewster