Shake a leg The Bard highlights jam-packed summer theater BY MEGAN GRUMBLING

Chin up: The sun isn’t the only diversion out there. Among this summer’s theatrical offerings, for example, we have an incident of Shakespearean cannibalism, a couple of lizard philosophers, humor of both the Down East and the Strangers with Candy varieties, Hamlet played by a camera, and Thing One and Thing Two raising their voices in song.

Let’s start with the sweetly obvious. If the weather continues to obscure summer’s arrival, we can always count on the sudden abundance of Shakespeare to confirm the season. Players’ Ring will kick off its summer line-up with the alternately gossamer and bawdy shenanigans of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, from June 10 through 26, in Portsmouth (call (603) 436-8123). Up at the Theater at Monmouth, this summer’s featured Shakespearean offering is The Taming of the Shrew. Kate and Petruchio will apparently duke it out in a setting inspired by Sergio Leone films, from July 8 through August 27 (call (207) 933-9999.)

Maybe you’d like to ingest some Shakespeare, but just not a whole, vast, two-and-a-half-hour feast’s worth. No shame in nibbling. For tapas-sized portions of iambic pentameter, head to Meritage on Tuesday, June 28, for wine and breathtaking grammar as Acorn Shakespeare Ensemble presents its latest Naked Shakespeare event: Spontaneous recitations of sonnets by Shakespearean actors who will mingle amongst you and your Pinot-quaffing friends.

Or, if you’re on a rage bender and have had it with poetry, fairies, and bitches making nice, perhaps you’d prefer a Shakespearean work that averages (according to helpful press materials) 5.2 atrocities per act, or one for every 97 lines. The Two Lights Theatre Ensemble mounts Titus Andronicus, which examines the oh-so-topical conflation of hubris with nationalist fervor. Titus runs July 7 through 24 at the St. Lawrence, and serves up revenge in the form of, among other things, a pie made out of people (call (207) 775-5568).

Whew! That’s a lot of Shakespeare, and with the exception of Monmouth’s contribution to the Spaghetti Western Canon, most of it is pretty classical. For a rather more meta and post-Structuralist take on the Bard, you can return to the St. Lawrence August 17 through 21 for Quinnopolis vs. Hamlet. Performed by the hip young New York theater company Quinnopolis, NY, this minimalist two-man show (the set consists of black curtains, an easel, and a large cardboard box) employs the text from Hamlet in a musing upon and attempt to escape from Hamlet. The actors have no character names, manipulate a camera on a tripod in place of interactions with Hamlet, and in fact try to avoid playing their roles altogether, in a very physical work that’s said to channel Beckett as much as Stoppard (call (207) 775-5568).

Hamlet, the character, had some strange and uncomfortable family situations to negotiate, but as far as familial oddness goes, I doubt he had much on the Sedarises. For years, siblings Amy and David have been making many folks feel that their own families, lives, and neuroses are reassuringly normal, but even die-hard fans might not be aware that the two of them teamed up in 2002 to work on a play. Called The Book of Liz, it follows a Sister among the Squeamish (SqueAmish, get it?) as she gives up her life making cheese balls and ventures out into the secular world. The Theater Project, in Brunswick, presents the foibles of apostate Liz July 7 through 23 (call (207) 729-8584).

Apostasy from a religious order is one thing, but apostasy from a marriage can be even richer theatrical fodder, particularly when the marriage in question was spawned by the darkly comedic brain of Edward Albee. His Marriage Play, which goes up as part of the sixth annual Deertrees Theatre Festival, in Harrison, August 25 through 27 has Jack and Gillian hurting each other with both rapier wit and the occasional expertly placed knee to the groin (call 207-583-6747).

If you’re hankering for a little Albee earlier than that, head up to the Freeport Public Library, on June 16 at 7 p.m., for a free reading of his Pulitzer Prize-winning Seascape. In this 1975 drama, two lizard-like sea creatures emerge from the ocean to consult with a middle-aged couple sunbathing on the beach. The highly evolved lizards, it seems, have some urgent philosophical dilemmas to work out, and the couple, as it happens, could stand to debate a few of their own (call (207) 865-2220).

My own philosophical dilemmas are often rendered moot when I’m able to reserve a Friday evening for the sublime good sense and old-school jazz of the Humble Farmer’s weekly NPR show. Humble’s wry humor, interesting news items, and general sanguinity are also available live, on occasion, and this summer you can catch him either at the Deertrees Theatre on Thursday, July 28 (where he will appear with the jazzman Brad Terry and friends) or at Hackmatack Playhouse (call (207) 689-1807), in Berwick, on June 25.

Isn’t it fine when our entertainments are, like Humble, utterly unique to where we live? If you agree, and are at all taken with regional history, I suggest a trip to Portsmouth for The Peace of Portsmouth. This original two-person show, a treatment of Portsmouth’s hosting of the 1905 Russo-Japanese peacemaking negotiations, is scripted entirely from newspapers and letters, and is a fascinating look at the social history of turn-of-the-century New England. The Peace premiered in April but returns August 11, 14, 28, and September 1 at the West End Studio Theatre, to coincide with Portsmouth’s city-wide centennial celebration of the signing of the treaty (call (603) 436-6660).

Back in Portland, it wouldn’t be summer without free theater by the sea, and once again the Stage at Spring Point offers just that at the SMCC campus in South Portland. This year they depart from their Shakespearean precedents to stage Molière’s classic Enlightenment comedy The Miser, July 13 through 30. This company does a magnificent job of crafting site-specific sets, and to watch the evening fall around the actors is a theater-going delicacy. Tickets are free but go fast, so be sure to get there early (call (207) 828-0128).

Because it’s funny, fast-paced, and set in a real live fort, kids will probably sit through The Miser, but I close with some picks specifically for the younger set: The Freeport Community Players will musicalize the popular L.M. Montgomery young-adult novel Anne of Green Gables at the Freeport Performing Arts Center, July 21 through August 7 (call (207) 865-2220). And on the off chance that you haven’t yet gotten your fill of seeing Tolkien raised from the page (or, more precisely, if your kids haven’t), you might fancy a trip down to Sanford Maine Stage, in Springvale, for the last weekend of The Hobbit. The adventures of Bilbo run through June 11 (call (207) 324-9691.).

Lastly, the Children’s Theatre of Maine offers Seussical, which is straight from Broadway and exactly what it sounds like, from July 6 through August 6 (call (207)-828-0617). And if that’s a big hit with your wee ones, then when Hackmatack puts it up from August 17 through 27 (call (207) 698-1807) you can all go and see it again! Take that, rain.

Megan Grumbling can be reached at mgrumbling@hotmail.com