The World Premiere of Political Satire SLASHR Comes to Gene Frankel Theatre

In our current political climate, comedians and satirists have fertile ground to cover. Entering this fray is an outrageous new theater production calculated to provoke, offend and get you thinking - no matter what your political affiliation is!

SlashR is a new staged drama by veteran New York City playwright Tony Stinkmetal. SlashR is a tongue-in-cheek satire that takes on the big issues in the wake of the 2016 presidential election - from immigration, political correctness, dating apps, Benghazi, and Big Pharma to bedbugs.

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 dazzling projections. SlashR skewers the American two-party political system, celebrity worship and the black-and-white perspective of US politics and pop culture. The ensemble cast of SlashR is: Colleen O'Neill, Jay Knowles, Heather Litteer, Royston Scott, Greg Zuccolo, Justin Law, David Ilku and Nora Burns. (Ilku and Burns, members of the comedy troupe Unitard, come from their critically-acclaimed, sell-out show "Tard Core," in residence at Joe's Pub all summer.)

SlashR is set in the traumatized New York City of November 2016, one day after the elections that brought Donald Trump to the Oval Office. Detective Anne Oakley, on her last case before retirement, investigates a routine murder. She comes up against evil PACs, a manipulative media, serial killers and soothsayers. Oakley eventually uncovers a conspiracy for world domination, based on a connection between The Great Bed Bug Panic of 2010, the 2016 election, and the global spread of fascism and scary clowns.

Explaining his inspiration for writing SlashR, playwright Tony Stinkmetal pointed out: "The tagline for 21st Century America has been, 'You're with us or you're with the terrorists!' The red-or-blue binary political split had taken firm hold. I believe that anytime you are offered two choices, you are basically being asked which end of the belt you'd prefer to get hit with." Stinkmetal, who describes himself as "anti-status quo," wants SlashR to convince Americans to liberate themselves from our two-party political system.

SlashR will open on Thursday, September 6. Six performances of the frantic, fast-paced 60-minute show will take place at the Gene Frankel Theatre, 24 Bond St, NYC.

Performances are:

• Wednesday, September 5, 8:00PM Dress rehearsal for press only
• Thursday, September 6, 8:00PM
• Friday, September 7, 8:00PM
• Saturday, September 8, 8:00PM
• Thursday, September 13, 8:00PM
• Friday, September 14, 8:00PM
• Saturday, September 15, 8:00PM

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.