In French painter Robert Delaunay’s “La Parisienne,” an elegant figure formed of bright swatches of pigment steps across an abstract color field.

In Gray Horan’s new play “Twelve Installations,” she walks right off the canvas and into real life.

The play’s 11 subsequent scenes, or “installations,” trace La Parisienne’s arduous journey from 1913 Paris to the United States and back to Europe.

Along the way, she gets caught up in two world wars, a handful of seminal exhibitions on modern art and a few run-ins with some opportunistic art collectors.

After two readings at the Wilbury Theatre in Providence, R.I., and later at Northern Stage, “Twelve Installations” debuts at Parish Players’ Eclipse Grange Theatre in Thetford on Friday, Feb. 14.

The playwright’s relationship to “La Parisienne” is a personal one.

“The painting chose me,” Horan said in a re cent interview.

She came across the work by way of her great-aunt, the late Swedish-American movie star Greta Garbo, who owned the painting.

When it came time for the family to sell it, in 2017, Horan began the play as a kind of eulogy.

Uncovering the artwork’s history took her to the Museum of Modern Art’s archives in Queens, N.Y., the Frick Art Research Library in Manhattan and even the Library of Congress.

Despite the extensive research, Horan insisted that “Twelve Installations” is “not a history play, it’s a commentary play.”

After all, La Parisienne does not hang obediently over a mantel piece, she has a mind of her own, and she’s not afraid to talk back to an industry that’s quick to reduce her worth to the highest bid at auction.

Her story is about art, but it’s also about the social rubrics that determine a woman’s worth.

Throughout the play, her appearance, and her vivacious spirit, are scrutinized, something many women can relate to.

Nicole Gaines, 48, who plays La Parisienne in the upcoming production, certainly can. As a cheerleader at Trinity Valley Community College in Athens, Texas, Gaines was subject to regular weigh-ins.

“My two roommates developed eating disorders because our coach was so hard on us about our weight,” she said in a phone interview.

La Parisienne, whose canvas is about 3-feet-wide, is swift to clap back at jabs about her size.

Gaines, who recently performed in Parish Players’ production of Eugene Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros,” will be joined by a small cast of six, who each play multiple characters.

Director Terry Samwick chose to highlight those quick transitions, with actors changing costume on the stage’s periphery.

“There was no way to do this without showing the guts of everything,” she said in a phone interview.

While researching the work, Horan observed another figure in the Delaunay: a hunched woman peering up at La Parisienne from the foreground. She comes to life too, as Basia, La Parisienne’s maid.

While La Parisienne is showered with attention by high society, Basia is virtually invisible.

“She shares her space, but she does not share her privilege,” Horan said.

She’s a clever foil for the protagonist, complicating a story that’s already shaping up to be as thought-provoking as it is fantastical.

“Twelve Installations” runs through Feb. 23. For tickets ($25, $20 for seniors and $15 for students) or more information, visit parishplayers.org or 802-785-4344.

Tyranny at BarnArts

Another rebellious lead, this time an ancient one, will claim the stage on Friday, Feb. 14 in BarnArts’ production of “Antigone.”

Sophokles wrote “Antigone” in 441 BC, but the play is set even farther back, in a world that straddles the mythical and the real.

Highlighting that magical atmosphere was important to director Erin Bennett. Her actors spar with umbrellas and strum ukuleles in the round at Barnard Town Hall.

“Antigone” tells the story of its titular character, who’s sentenced to death by King Kreon after she defies his rule when she buries her brother, Polyneikes, who was slain in battle.

There are many English translations of “Antigone,” but Bennett was drawn to the one by poet and classicist Anne Carson.

“It’s poetry, it’s really beautiful, and I think she really gives us everything we need,” she said in an interview.

Bennett played Lady Macduff in BarnArts’ production of “Macbeth” last spring, and she recently completed her masters in playwriting at Dartmouth College.

The cast of “Antigone” are all returning actors to BarnArts, with the exception of Bridgette Hammond, who plays the lead.

Grief and anguish are top notes in “Antigone,” but Bennett hopes the audience finds some levity in the show, as well.

“We’re not just doing this play to make people sad, although that might happen, it’s also just about the joy of performing and the longevity of storytelling, and how we can share this with so many performers before us and after us,” she said.

When I brought up the parallels between the play’s tyrannical king and a certain domineering president in our interview, Bennett let out a rueful laugh.

She acknowledged that the connections are undeniable, and she’s wary of how they may influence what audiences get out of the upcoming production.

“I didn’t want it to be escapist, and I didn’t want to bang people over the head with the kind of thing we have to see in the news every day.”

Instead, Bennett urges viewers to look inward.

“(I want) people to just think about themselves ... how they handle people they disagree with and how we as people handle being wrong.”

“Antigone” runs through Feb. 23. For tickets ($20, $15 for students) and more information, go to barnarts.org.

Laughter on Allen Street

On Monday, Feb. 17, Sawtooth Kitchen, Bar and Stage will host four Native American comedians for a night of stand-up comedy.

A collaboration with the Hopkins Center, the show is one stop on a tour produced by Andre Bouchard of Indigenous Performance Productions, who has partnered with the Hop several times in the past.

For Bouchard, the tour is part of a broader movement.

“There’s this emergence of Native American humor in popular culture,” he said, citing the 2021 comedy-drama series “Reservation Dogs” as a chief example.

He described comedy as an “elegant vehicle” that “provides an opportunity for intercultural communities to discover something absolutely new.”

The talent on Monday’s lineup hail from the U.S. and Canada.

Marc Yaffee and Jim Ruel both starred in “Goin’ Native: The Indian Comedy Slam,” while Ernest Tsosie has appeared on hit drama series “Better Call Saul.”

Monique Moreau, 37, has written for Netflix’s “Thomas and Friends: All Engines Go!” and has been performing stand-up since 2008.

Her material grapples with her experience growing up adopted and living with autism, or, as Moreau put it, being “a life-long fish out of water person.”

For tickets ($20, $12 for students) or more information, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or 603-646-2422.

Marion Umpleby can be reached at mumpleby@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.