Outside the Law

On November 29, Irondale turns to its own history with the launch of From the Vault, a new series revisiting productions from across the company’s four decades and examining the work that shaped its theatrical voice. The series begins with Outside the Law, an ensemble-devised work originally created in 1989 that smashes together two seemingly disparate stories: Rosalind’s journey in Shakespeare’s As You Like It and the legend of American folk hero and Depression-era outlaw Pretty Boy Floyd. Moving between Shakespeare and American folklore, the piece became an early expression of the kind of theater Irondale was developing as an ensemble—pulling apart familiar stories, colliding different worlds and using that friction to look at American culture from an unexpected angle. More than three decades later, Outside the Law returns as the first work Irondale has chosen to revisit through From the Vault.