The lives of a Queens, New York, family get turned upside down as Pope Paul VI visits New York City. Artie Shaughnessy, a zookeeper/failed singer-songwriter, longs to find fame in Hollywood with his girlfriend, Bunny. Artie’s mentally ill wife, Bananas, with whom he lives, imagines herself to be animals. Artie has found an institution for her–with trees with blue leaves–and will take her there before moving to California with Bunny, hopefully to find fame, fortune, and favor from his best friend, Billy, a Hollywood director. Artie and Bananas’ son, Ronnie, is illegally home from the Army attempting to assassinate the Pope, and soon, the family’s evening is disrupted by three nuns and Billy’s deaf actress-girlfriend. Chaos erupts when characters’ lives intersect as they all try to be in the presence of the Pope on this historic day. The House of Blue Leaves is a hilarious, heartbreaking, farcical journey through one New York apartment where characters engage directly with an audience who will at the same time adore–and admonish–them all.

Old Library Theatre (OLT), Fair Lawn Recreation Department’s resident theatre company, is a community theatre organization located in Bergen County, NJ. We want to acknowledge that we are on the traditional territory of the Lenape, the indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. 

Old Library Theatre was started in 1967 in Fair Lawn by a handful of dreamers who wanted to make the joy of theatre performance available to everyone. The original theatre was on River Road, but the company relocated to the George Frey Center for Performing Arts in the Fair Lawn Community Center in 2006. Now in our 55th season, we aim to continue the tradition of providing quality community entertainment at an affordable cost.