W r i t t e n b y C a r y l C h u r c h i l l Di r e c t e d b y C a r l y D . W e c k s t e i n
"Director
Carly D. Weckstein's accomplished revival forgoes the niceties of a
full production design ...while her pitch-perfect ensemble...delivers
both the play's riotous burlesque and its potent poignancy with equal
aplomb." - Bill Raden, LA Weekly
L.A. Weekly Review: "The world is a far different place from 1979, when playwright Caryl Churchill's postmodernist blast at frustrated sexual desire and Western colonialism premiered. But if the play's satirical, gender-switched mash-up of Victorian colonial repression with modern sexual mores no longer carries quite the transgressive bite of former years, it has lost none of its comic or political teeth. Act 1 takes the form of a classic bedroom farce with a circa-1880s family in British colonial Africa hypocritically violating every sacred marital vow and sexual taboo under the old Empire's sun. Act 2 shifts from Pythonesque satire to British neorealism, ages the family 25 years and transports them to a more liberated 1980s London, where they are finally free to pursue their happiness. Director Carly D. Weckstein's accomplished revival forgoes the niceties of a full production design -- period and setting are left to Samantha Kellie's capable and colorful costumes -- while her pitch-perfect ensemble (led by Thaddeus Shafer's hilarious Victorian patriarch Clive, and Jaymie Bellous and a dazzling Katelyn Myer taking turns as Clive's clueless wife, Betty) delivers both the play's riotous burlesque and its potent poignancy with equal aplomb." -Bill Raden, LA Weekly