HELTER SKELTER/ LAND OF THE DEAD
By Neil LaBute Tue 15 Jan - Sat 16 Feb, 2008In a chic restaurant in New York City, a man and his wife meet to take a break from Christmas shopping before heading back to their hotel. He doesn't know that she has already seen him today.
Elsewhere in town a couple part. He goes to the office, she visits a clinic. As events unfold it becomes clear that this is not going to be just any ordinary day.
In two stunning new companion pieces, award-winning playwright, screenwriter and film director Neil LaBute charts the trajectories of two regular couples in contemporary America, and their extreme responses to sudden changes in their lives.
What the papers say
'These two short plays (one hour in total) of nameless American couples are little masterpieces of timing, ballets of emotional terrorism...an incisive production by Patricia Benecke with mesmerising acting from John Kirk, Patrick Driver, and, especially, Ruth Gemmell.'
The Independent
creatives
Direction - Patricia Benecke
Design - Sara Perks
Lighting Design - John Harris
Music - Nikola Kodjabashia
cast includes
Patrick Driver
Ruth Gemmell
John Kirk
details
'It reveals the high technical skills and first-rate acting we habitually expect at this address...Gemmell proves, in Patricia Benecke's production, that women have the capacity to transcend the mundane; and it is her performance, above all, that gives LaBute's deceptively slight plays an air of epic intensity.'
The Guardian