“O for a Muse of fire…”

George Brant’s World War II-era comedy, “Into the Breeches!”, directed by Jessica Thebus playing at Northlight Theatre, brings the homefront story to Evanston, Illinois and the fictional Oberon Playhouse, whose producing director—and virtually every other enlistment-age man in town—is serving overseas. Facing the cancellation of the company’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Henriad”—Henry IV Parts I and II and Henry V—the director’s wife and producing partner, Maggie (Darci Nalepa), proposes to cast the show with women instead. Hilarity ensues when it becomes clear that Maggie’s success will be measured by her ability to convince and appease the demands of both the company diva, Celeste Fielding (Hollis Resnik), and the stalwart board chair, Ellsworth Snow (Fred Zimmerman), at every turn.