Australian Premiere of Young Jean Lee's STRAIGHT WHITE MEN

A contemporary work from 'the most adventurous downtown playwright of her generation', according to The New York Times, STRAIGHT WHITE MEN written by Young Jean Lee, will have its South Australian premiere in this brand new production in collaboration with Brisbane's La Boite Theatre Company.

One of New York's leading new wave theatre-makers, Obie Award-winning Young Jean Lee creates work that tackles identity politics and detonates cultural stereotypes. Her play Straight White Men explores what might normally be seen as the oldest birth privilege in Western civilization - to be straight, white and male. It's provocative, edgy, riotously funny and, ultimately, wistfully tragic.

Part of the New York Times Top Ten list in 2014, Straight White Men tells the story of the widowed Ed who welcomes home his three middle aged sons for Christmas. The eldest Matt has moved back in after losing his way, while life also holds its challenges for younger brothers Jake and Drew. They enjoy brotherly banter and nostalgic re-hashing of childhood pranks. But amongst the hijinks and smart-arse repartee, they must confront a problem that even a happy family can't solve: when identity matters, and privilege is problematic, what is the real value of being a straight, white man?

The work asks the question: "What do we want straight white men to do that they're not doing? And what happens when they do that?" Lee said. "The question I was asking myself when I was working on the show was: 'Am I using the straight white man as an excuse to not have to give anything up for social justice, because I can always point at the straight white man and say, 'Well at least I'm not him', so I can just do whatever I want and I'm making the world a better place because I'm making it more diverse?"

This production will be brought together a superb creative team. State Theatre Company's Resident Director Nescha Jelk (Othello, Volpone) will draw the humour and heartbreak from an ensemble of South Australia and Queensland's best including Chris Pitman (Summer of the Seventeenth Doll), Roger Newcombe (The Government Inspector), Hugh Parker (Black Books), Lucas Stibbard and Alexis West. Further bringing Lee's script to life will be music composed by Busty Beatz - musical director of Black Honey Company who brought Hot Brown Honey to the Adelaide Fringe earlier this year.

Director Nescha Jelk said: "Young Jean Lee is one of the most exciting playwrights to come out of America at the moment, and with Straight White Men you can easily see why. Not only is it a very funny and engaging play, but more importantly, she asks her audiences to wrestle with some fantastic big questions about privilege and how complicit we all are. In the lead up to rehearsals, I've been having some awesome conversations about the questions she poses and hope audiences will be doing the same after seeing the show."

The production marks State Theatre Company's first ever collaboration with La Boite Theatre Company, opening in Adelaide before transferring to the Roundhouse for a Brisbane season.

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