why torture is wrong, and the people who love them

BY CHRISTOPHER DURANG

“Enough with men needing to kill and blow things up all the time!”

Felicity wakes up after a drunken blackout to find she’s married to a sexist, violent loser who calls himself Zamir, claims to be Irish, and makes Osama bin Laden look like a moderate.

Is her new husband a terrorist? Is her father’s seemingly innocuous butterfly collecting actually a front for his involvement in a shadow government? Is her mother insane or just a harmless, if obsessive, theatre buff? And what’s with the minister who directs porno and the government operative with malfunctioning underwear?

Felicity’s world is plunging into crisis and Homeland Security never looked so insecure. This provocative and riotous examination of the ‘War on Terror’ era in the United States, with its twisted logic and the resulting cults of violence and paranoia, zeroes in on private terrors and preoccupations with biting black humour.

Photography c. Ian Barry

"The Director, Melita Rowston, has bravely chosen and tackled this work, and she has found a way through the 'free associations' of the writing, and it is clever, both in content and in form, to keep us all, for most of the time, on board. Certainly, she has managed her company of actors very well indeed, and they all give sterling, focused and concentrated service to the work. It would not be an easy task. " Kevin Jackson's Theatre Diary

"New Theatre constantly, as is evident in this production, presents plays worth major attention with the highest professional standards at an affordable admission. Missing this is wrong, and people should love it." Sydney Arts Guide

"Melita Rowston is brave and determined in her direction and skilfully negotiates the balance of power between madcap humour and the play’s serious subtext…. This is a dynamic show — an immersion into a distorted and delusional world, of political ideology and dysfunctional families. A finely balanced, absurdist production; a classic farce full of hilariously funny moments but juxtaposed with jeopardy." OZ Baby Boomers

"A very funny and fabulously performed satire. Director Melita Rowston does a fantastic job with Christopher Durang’s script. The performances are joyfully hyperbolic." Theatre Red

"A must see for the 2014 Sydney theatre calendar. Everyone is right on target, it’s a smorgasbord of acting talent and having a fantastic time with their deep interesting roles. Rowston has assembled a great crew of creatives who seem to never run out of mojo. This is a great manifestation of a really interesting contemporary playwright, and you won’t be sorry to say you were there." Lisa Thatcher

"This production delivers in spades, folding in pop-culture motifs with the self-awareness of the script, like the TV-Studio set or casually visible vocal warm-ups between scenes suggesting a host of hidden ironies and inter-textual wit. You can spend hours unpacking all the subtle references and meta-gags at play, or just strap yourself in for a whirlwind tour of outrageous and kinky myth-busting." Fifth Wall

CREATIVE TEAM:

Director: Melita Rowston

Co-Set Designer: Sasha Perri

Co-Set Designer: Clarisse Ambroselli

Costume Designer: Virag Dozsa