Nick Offerman to star in 'Confederacy of Dunces' play in Boston

BOSTON, March 2 (UPI) -- Parks and Recreation veteran Nick Offerman is to star in the the world premiere stage production of A Confederacy of Dunces, Boston's Huntington Theatre Company announced Monday.

The play has been adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by John Kennedy Toole. To be directed by David Esbjornson, the show will begin performances Nov. 11 and will run through Dec. 13 at the Huntington's main stage, the BU Theatre.

"A Confederacy of Dunces is an iconic novel with an incredible cult following," Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois said in a statement. "It's a privilege to work with playwright Jeffrey Hatcher, the brilliant and profoundly funny Nick Offerman, and our friend director David Esbjornson, and to be the first to share this exciting new play with Boston audiences."

"Adapting John Kennedy Toole's Confederacy of Dunces into a play has been like wrestling Ignatius Riley to the stage," added Hatcher. "The book is famously picaresque, episodic and digressive, but the digressions are often the point. What I think we've arrived at is a play that focuses on the characters -- Ignatius, his mother Mrs. Reilly, Burma Jones, Myrna Minkoff -- without losing any of the book's color and atmosphere and humor."