THE ACCIDENT Set for FRIGID New York, 2/18-3/7

FRIGID New York Festival presents A Driver's Seat Entertainment production, The Accident, a short play written by Dipti Bramhandkar and directed by Courtney Wetzel. The shows run from February 18th - March 7th at the Kraine Theater (85 E 4th St.)

"I knew I was falling," a friend said to playwright Dipti Bramhandkar when recounting a fall off of a mountain that left him with multiple, life-altering injuries. His story unexpectedly collided with another type of fall: when the "truth" about a famous person changes the way we think of them. The names are still familiar to us: Lance Armstrong, James Frey, and countless others. Soon after, the play began to take shape through "interviews with a physical therapist and psychologist and obsessively reading every 'fall from grace' autobiography," says Bramhandkar.

A man suffers horrific injuries from a fall while trying to rescue other climbers. The press gets wind of his story and makes him a famous face overnight. Wealth and power soon follow. He uses his numerous platforms to raise money for other people who are in the process of rehabilitation. But things start to unravel when a journalist linked to his past doubts his story and we search for the truth through the eyes of the people closest to him, including his immigrant father, his physical therapist, a star struck fan and of course, the journalist himself. In this docu-play, the past collides with the present as we discover what it means to be a hero in the media-obsessed 21st century.

The playwright, producers (Nicol Moeller and Cara Yeates), and several members of the cast met last year at the LAByrinth Theater Company's Intensive Ensemble, and have closely collaborated on this play. Cast members include Anish Bramhandkar, Diogo Martins, Robert Montana, Bobby Rodriguez, Rahoul Roy and Cara Yeates.