Flea Theater Season Will Feature Salem Witches and Olsen Twins

New plays about the Salem witch trials, the Olsen twins, and the patrician elite are among the Off Broadway productions this fall that the Flea Theater announced on Wednesday.

“Sarah Flood in Salem Mass,” a re-telling of events leading up to the 17th century witch trials, will feature actors from two troupes, the Riot Group and the Flea’s in-house company, the Bats; the work is written by Adriano Shaplin (“Sophie Gets the Horns,”“Freedom Club”), artistic director and co-founder of the Riot Group. Performances begin Sept. 24.

Another world premiere production, “Family Furniture,” is the latest work by Pulitzer Prize finalist A.R. Gurney (“Heresy,” “Mrs. Farnsworth”). Like many of Mr. Gurney’s plays, this one - set in the 1950s on an idyllic summer lake - deals with a married WASP couple and their challenging children. Tony Award nominee Thomas Kail (“In the Heights”) will direct the play, which begins performances Nov. 12.

In the Flea’s smaller downstairs space, the TriBeCa-based company will also produce Jonathan Caren’s play “The Recommendation,” about a friendship beset by issues of race, class, and wealth, with performances starting Aug. 23. It will be followed by “Mary-Kate Olsen Is In Love,” by Mallery Avidon (“queerSpawn,” ), which involves an unhappily married young woman who conjures up the actors-turned-celebrities Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen as a means of escape. The production is scheduled to begin Nov. 1.