Other Desert Cities at Arts Theatre Cronulla

The Director’s note in the program for Arts Theatre Cronulla’s new production Other Desert Cities asks ‘What is truth? Why do we manipulate our truth? To protect, to conceal?’

Other Desert Cities is a 2011 award-winning Broadway play written by Jon Robin Baitz, creator of the television series Brothers and Sisters. This sharply observed dark comedy tells the story of a family existing within a carefully constructed façade, each member playing their role to maintain that façade until, reunited for the first time in six years, the cracks begin to appear.

Set in Palm Springs California in 2004, it is Christmas Eve in the Wyeth’s wealthy family home. Daughter Brooke, a writer who has suffered a nervous breakdown, has written a memoir about her life, her parents and their role in the tragic loss of her older brother, a pivotal event in the family’s history, but has not told her parents. Polly and Lyman Wyeth are old-guard Republicans, highly regarded in old Hollywood circles and admired by Republicans for their service to and friendship with Ronald and Nancy Reagan in their heyday. Polly’s sister Silda, a Democrat, is also living with them, having recently been released from rehab. Younger brother Trip has also arrived to spend what he hopes is a happy family holiday, but deep seated issues are dredged to the surface and family members are forced to grapple with consequences of the choices they made in the distant past.

The play earned five Tony Award nominations, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and winner of the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play for 2010-2011. Baitz has made sure our sympathies keep shifting among the members of this wounded family, all of them emerging as selfish, loving, cruel, compassionate, irritating, charming and just possibly heroic at different times. As a New York Post critic has noted, “Spending time with these messed-up, complicated people is a genuine pleasure." 

Director Cheryl Butler says “working on this play has been an amazing experience, due both to the incredible script and the talent, commitment and respect the cast and crew have shown to the work, the process and each other. This is a stunning group of people to work with and I thank them all for being part of this amazing production.”

Opening night is 12 May and the play runs till 17 June, 2017. Performances are on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, with three Sunday afternoon matinees. Tickets can be booked online at https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?embed&eid=236443

Cast
POLLY WYETH - Suzy Wilds
LYMAN WYETH - David Hines
BROOKE WYETH - Angela Gibson
TRIP WYETH - Gavin Leahy
SILDA GRAUMAN - Ann Sayegh

www.artstheatrecronulla.com.au

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