An ecstatic and dangerous comedy that brilliantly captures our precarious economic times, Lisa D’Amour’s Obie award-winning Detroit will be presented in a Victorian premiere by Red Stitch Actors Theatre from 28 August 2015.
Living in a suburb hit hard by the economic downturn, Ben and Mary see sudden signs of life at the deserted house next door and invite their new neighbours, Sharon and Kenny, over for a barbecue. The fledgling friendship soon veers out of control shattering the fragile hold Ben and Mary have on their way of life - with unexpected comic consequences.
With arresting insight, Detroit exposes a nerve just below the surface of its dangerously funny domestic narrative, the nerve of class struggle and economic pressures.
“It’s rare to read a script that leaps off the page and makes you weep with laughter. Detroit is that play,” says Red Stitch Ensemble member Sarah Sutherland. “As the humdrum of the everyday is cracked open to reveal a riddled catacomb beneath the veneer, Detroit draws you in – twisting you around and spitting you out dazed and wondering at the other end.”
Lisa D’Amour is an American playwright and interdisciplinary artist, and one half of the OBIE-Award winning performance duo PearlDamour. Her plays have been commissioned and produced by theaters across the country, including The Women’s Project, Playwrights’ Horizons, Steppenwolf Theater Company (Chicago) and the Royal National Theater (London), just to name a few.
Lisa’s play Detroit was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in Drama and the 2011 Susan Smith Blackburn prize, winning the 2013 Obie Award for Best New American Play. She is the recipient of the 2008 Alpert Award for the Arts in theater, the 2011 Steinberg Playwright Award and is a recipient of the 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award.
“A smart, tart critique of the country’s fraying social fabric, Ms. D’Amour’s dark comedy is… rich and addictively satisfying.” – The New York Times
Director: Tanya Dickson Featuring: Paul Ashcroft, Brett Cousins, Ngaire Dawn Fair, Sarah Sutherland, Chris Wallace Assistant Director: Sam Russo Set & Lighting Designer: Matt Adey (House of Vnholy) Sound Designer: Russell Goldsmith Costume Designer: Jack Grifford Choreographer: Helen Duncan Vocal Coach: Les Cartwright Stage Manager: Elizabeth Downes
Detroit
Red Stitch Theatre, Rear 2 Chapel Street, St. Kilda
Season: 28 August – 26 September 2015
Bookings: (03) 9533 8083 or online at: www.redstitch.net
For more information, visit: www.redstitch.net for details.
Image: Sarah Sutherland and Ngaire Dawn Fair feature in Detroit – courtesy of Red Stitch Actors Theatre