Last September, veteran downtown playwright Tony Stinkmetal foisted upon a Trump-weary New York City a frantic fever dream of a theater show: SlashR was a tongue-in-cheek satire that tackled issues as diverse as immigration, political correctness, dating apps, Benghazi, Big Pharma and bedbugs - all wrapped up in a cuddly tale of serial killers and Russians destroying American democracy.
Now that Midterm Elections are behind us, playwright Tony Stinkmetal has returned with a massive reimagining of his stage show: SlashR is an outrageous new theater production calculated to challenge your political complacency - no matter where you stand ideologically!
SlashR opens on Thursday, January 3 and runs through January 12. Six performances of the frantic, fast-paced 60-minute show will take place at the Gene Frankel Theatre, 24 Bond St, NYC.
SlashR is inventively staged in the style of the 1970s-era slasher movies of Dario Argento and John Carpenter, enhanced by cinematic special effects, including eye-popping lighting and projections. SlashR skewers the American two-party political system, celebrity worship and increasing corporate control of civil liberties. The ensemble cast of SlashR is: Tony Brown, Heather Litteer, Royston Scott, Greg Zuccolo, Justin Law, and Nora Burns. (Burns, a member of the comedy troupe Unitard, is fresh from the critically-acclaimed "Tard Core" at Joe's Pub.)
SlashR is a take-no-prisoners post-apocalypse reworking of last fall's production. This time, North America has been blown to pieces after the Midterm elections. As three seekers of the truth investigate the ruins, they uncover evidence of conspiracies that run from the White House through corporate America to organized religion and beyond. SlashR is as topical as today's newsfeed - but one hundred times more honest.
"In the script of the first run of my show, I was screaming at the top of my lungs that both the Democratic and Republican parties are dysfunctional and only worsening our political crisis," said playwright Tony Stinkmetal. "In the SlashR reboot, I examine the militarization of our consumerist culture. Going to hell in a handbasket was never so hilarious."
Performances are:
Tickets for each performance are $25 apiece and are available by clicking here.
Playwright Tony Stinkmetal arrived in New York City in the early 80s, landing in the drug-addled, art-crazed Alphabet City of the Lower East Side with little more than a GED and a dream. In the ensuing three decades, he has worked with groundbreaking artists Charles Atlas, Anohni (Antony & The Johnsons), Dancenoise, Tom Murrin (The Alien Comic), Salley May and drag legend Hapi Phace. Tony has been writing screenplays and screening underground films since 1992.
The Gene Frankel Theatre has remained steadfast since Gene Frankel founded the theatre in 1949; finding and cultivating an audience that can share with us the discovery and excitement of theatre. Currently the Gene Frankel Theatre is still vibrant with classes and revolutionary theatre. Our goal is to keep the legacy of Gene Frankel alive by nurturing new talents that voice who we are today. We are looking to give a home to artists that cultivate a theater that speaks not only of an idealistic socio-political change - but a personal change, the only truly manageable change that can lead to a new and better social, political, economic world.
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