LAB Theater Project Will Premiere GREEN CHEESE

LAB Theater Project will present Green Cheese, a sharp new comedy by Guy Newsham. Mashing questions of old-fashioned honor with modern power relationships and dollops of raspberry mousse cake, Green Cheese lays bare how even a casual game night with friends can veer off into a ruthless free-for-all if the stakes are high enough.

Ottawa-based actor and playwright Guy Newsham, a native of England, worked by day in Canada’s National Research Council on sustainable building technology. A prolific writer of 10-minute plays, he has had over 100 short and full-length plays produced in five countries and across the U.S.

Green Cheese is directed by LAB favorite Katie Calahan, and features Tampa area actors John Hooper, Erin Laugen, Jessie Mease and Mike Fasso. LAB’s founding director Owen Robertson designed the set and lights, with sound by Rick Anthony, scenic art by M’ria Swire, set dressing and props by Beth Robertson, and costumes by Lindsay Ellis.

Katie Calahan, the director, calls Green Cheese “delightful and insightful. I love the humor between the long-term friends, and the vulnerability, that suddenly ramps up into ‘bringing a knife to cake fight.’ This play gives as much insight into the human condition as it offers up in belly laughs.”

With her company going through tough times, Olive is forced to decide which of two senior employees to lay off – specifically, either her husband or her ex-boyfriend/best friend. So, like anyone would, she decides she’ll let a party game settle the question, winner take all! A fun night out spirals into a high-stakes battle where secrets simmer, alliances shift, and friendships, careers and marriages hang on the roll of the dice. The playwright, Guy Newsham, says that the initial spark for Green Cheese came when playing Trivial Pursuit online with friends during the pandemic.

“Could you ever really be sure someone rolled what they said they rolled if the dice weren’t on camera? The play’s characters are competing in the game for somewhat absurd stakes,” he notes, “resonant of the ever-heightened real-world outcomes in reality TV shows.” Director Calahan describes their evening as “nothing goes according to plan, complications are revealed, and there are no right answers,” to which the playwright jokes “in the end, the play might raise more questions than it answers.”

Green Cheese runs for three weekends, January 9-26. Performances are Thursday through Saturday at 8:00 and Sunday matinees at 3:00, in LAB’s theater at 812. E. Henderson Ave, on the western edge of Ybor City. The show will also be available on-demand, starting January 16 through February 9. Audience members who purchase on-demand tickets will be emailed a link to the video site.

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