TU Opens 2017 with a Dark, All-Female, Dystopian Thriller

Theatre Unleashed is excited to announce that its first show of 2017 will be the West Coast premiere of Steph DeFerie's female-driven futuristic drama Cannibals Alone, running Feb. 9 to March 4 at The Belfry In North Hollywood.

Cannibals Alone is a chilling thriller that brings us into the secluded lives of best friends Rae and Mags as they seek to avenge the death of a loved one while fighting a government that breeds and thrives on paranoia in a not too distant dystopian future. Set in the humble confines of a backwoods cabin, Cannibals Alone shows how politics, propaganda and paranoia can affect and twist the average citizen when left to his or her own devices.

"The start of 2017 is the start of a different world in many ways," said Artistic Director Jenn Scuderi Crafts. "We're currently standing on the edge of uncertainty in terms of the world in general. As artists, it's our responsibility to ask the hard questions and challenge our audience to do the same. Cannibals Alone seemed like a very appropriate start to 2017."

To helm the all-female cast, Theatre Unleashed tapped stage veteran Julia Plostnieks, who has not only performed in a number of TU shows, but also directed one of its most successful, A Feast of Snacks, at last year's Hollywood Fringe. Cannibals Alone offers quite a change of pace from that show and a challenge Plostnieks is excited about taking on.

"Cannibals Alone is raw, difficult, messy and cautionary," she said. "And, for better or worse, it is a dusty mirror of our own selves in an alternate future that may be creeping into our current American reality. What excites me about this script is how it crashes through walls of dystopian fiction into a very present and frightening potential. My hope is that audiences will come away from this piece with an understanding of the connective tissue between this fictionalized reality and our own, and that that tissue is pliable, adjustable, and, ultimately, breakable."

Cannibals Alone kicks off a year that will feature a journey from "darkness to light" Scuderi Crafts said. After Cannibals Alone, TU's Main Stage will feature the classic Of Mice and Men, followed by a new updated version of one of TU's most popular shows The Spidey Project at Hollywood Fringe. Other shows are being added along the way, including a new Soap Opera Series featuring new episodic comedies from the TU Writer's Den. Check out www.theatreunleashed.org.

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