An ecstatic and dangerous comedy that brilliantly captures our precarious economic times, Lisa D’Amour’s award-winning Detroit will be presented by Darlinghurst Theatre Company in an Australian premiere season at the Eternity Playhouse from 21 July 2015.
Ben and Mary live in a decaying suburb hard hit by economic downturn. Ben’s lost his job and Mary’s discovered alcohol. They fire up the barbeque to welcome the arrival of new neighbours; a couple broke and fresh out of rehab. As the night wears on confessions are shared, inhibitions are shed and bacchanalia ensues.
Stage and screen director Ross McGregor (Neighbours, Speaking in Tongues) has assembled a stellar cast including Logie Award-winning actress Lisa Chappell (McLeod’s Daughters, The Cult), Ronald Falk (Winners and Losers, The Doctor Blake Mysteries), Claire Lovering (San Andreas, The Graduate), James O’Connell (Gallipoli, The Secret River) and Ed Wightman (The Lion King, Superman Returns).
“It’s not often I come across a play that is so well written, with great dialogue, that’s still relevant today,” said Director, Ross McGregor. “Detroit is about dreams, self-respect, employment and community, and how quickly these can be destroyed. But sometimes they need to be for new growth to appear.”
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 sharp X-ray of the embattled American psyche as well as 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: Ross McGregor Cast: Lisa Chappell, Ronald Falk, Claire Lovering, James O’Connell, Ed Wightman Production Designer: Tobhiyah Stone Feller Lighting & AV Designer: Benjamin Brockman Sound Designer: Jeremy Silver
Detroit
Eternity Playhouse, 39 Burton Street, Darlinghurst
Season: 21 July – 16 August 2015 (previews: 17 – 19 July)
Bookings: (02) 8356 9987 or online at: www.darlinghursttheatre.com
For more information, visit: www.darlinghursttheatre.com for details.
Image: Ed Wightman, Lisa Chappell, James O’Connell and Claire Lovering – photo by Helen White