Adrienne Truscott Returns To Joe's Pub With A Stand-Up Rape About Comedy

Joe's Pub, a program of The Public Theater, is thrilled to present Adrienne Truscott's (Still) Asking For It (A Stand-Up Rape About Comedy Starring Her P***y and Little Else), directed and developed by Ellie Heyman, from September 20 - October 13.

Truscott returns to Joe's Pub with a new iteration of her provocative and painfully relevant show, which had its U.S. debut there in 2013. Dressed only from the waist up and the ankles down, Truscott (still) stars in this sex-positive, seriously funny, unflinching, and nuanced show about rape culture, but will now be joined by cast members Jenn Kidwell (Underground Railroad Game) and Mari Moriarty (Jet of Blood). (Still) Asking For It features video and sound design by Carmine Covelli.

The run will also feature different special guests - comedians, sexual assault survivors, anti-harassment allies and more - at each performance. Those guests include Becca Blackwell, Carolyn Castiglia, Kerry Coddett, Amanda Duarte, Ophira Eisenberg, Bridget Everett, Negin Farsad, Martha Graham Cracker (aka Dito Van Reigersberg), Marisela Gonzalez, Jenn Harris, Jeff Hiller, Krishna Istha, Nikole Marone, Aparna Nancherla, Gus Solomons jr, Dane Terry, Neruda Williams, Angel Yau, and more to be announced.

Performances run September 20, 21, 23-25, October 3-6, and 10-13. Public Theater Partner, Public Supporter, and Member tickets are available now. Full price tickets, starting at $25, can be accessed online, over the phone (212-967-7555), and in-person at the Taub Box Office at The Public Theater (425 Lafayette Street, NYC).

Demanding awareness of our culture's shortcomings, the original show, Adrienne Truscott's Asking For It, which Truscott has been performing solo since 2013, was integral to increasing the volume on conversations fueling the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, and laid the groundwork for shows like Hannah Gadsby's Nanette. Asking For It did the essential work of "reappropriating the rape joke as a feminist tool, challenging entrenched cultural attitudes surrounding rape and parts of the stand-up scene that have failed to move beyond a misogynistic past" (The New York Times).

Adrienne Truscott's (Still) Asking For It reveals how jokes tickle, thrill, enrage, or rile while the addition of new performers brings vastly different lived experiences to the same provocative material. "Adrienne not only created a new show, but she created a new way, a new form, to talk about rape culture in America, and she is working tirelessly with director Ellie Heyman to expand the scope of voices represented in this new iteration. Quite honestly, we'd love for this show to have been rendered irrelevant since Adrienne first premiered it six years ago but it hasn't. So it returns in the hope that it bolsters the collective power and voice of survivors of sexual assault," said Alex Knowlton, Director of Joe's Pub.

As the national discourses on rape and comedy have evolved in tandem and reached the absurd apotheosis of the ultimate rape joke - an accused rapist in the Oval Office - Truscott and Heyman have further developed the piece to respond to the stream of accusations against men in positions of power, not to mention their "apologies," "second chances," and "comebacks," in real time and from a multitude of perspectives.

Tickets: Online Joespub.com / Phone 212-967-7555. In Person The Public Theater Box Office, 425 Lafayette Street, NYC. Note There Is A $12 Food / Two (2) Drink Minimum Per Person Per Show, Unless Otherwise Noted.

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