Tickets Now on Sale for THIS AMERICAN WIFE World Premiere

FourthWall Theatrical, in association with Fake Friends and Jeremy O. Harris, has announced that tickets are now on sale for the world premiere of This American Wife, the newest experiment in live internet theater from the creative minds of Circle Jerk. Part loving satire and part piercing examination, This American Wife, running May 20-June 6, is a multi-camera, live-streamed, dark comedy investigating the obsession, idolization, and all-consuming-hunger the women of The Real Housewives engender in many of us. Streaming live from a hauntingly glamorous Long Island McMansion, This American Wife is much more than a tribute to the guilty pleasure of a television franchise. As conceived and written by Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley, who perform alongside their friend and artistic collaborator Jakeem Dante Powell (Slave Play), This American Wife is an absurd fantasia on national memes that blends improvisation and multi-camera cinematography in a site-specific (and self-specific) live stream.

Directed by Rory Pelsue and featuring dramaturgy by Cat Rodríguez and Ariel Sibert, This American Wife is a reimagined and updated adaptation of Breslin and Foley's stage show that premiered at New York Theater Workshop's Next Door series in 2018. The heart and ballooned lips of the original have been custom tailored to the contours of the internet, advancements in Fake Friends' artistic process, and a pandemic epoch of solitary Real Housewives bingeing. Mixing absurdity and reality, the trio of This American Wife inhabits and disturbs an imagined image of a real world, playing out scenarios, texts, and choreographies from the massively popular-and endlessly memed-franchise. As the boys travel deeper into the dark walk-in closets of their minds, they are forced into crises of desire, repulsion, identity, and autobiography.

"The life of an obsessive fan of a trash cultural artifact-in a trash time, in a trash country-is a humbling one," said Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley. "Like the greatest autobiography-driven performance artists from Karen Finley to Spalding Gray, the Housewives have trained themselves to expertly blur the boundaries between reality and fiction. Likewise, the historic segregation of The Real Housewives franchise reflects the aspirations and racism of American escapism. As true fans, there's no way for us to hide from this reality."

Jana Bezdek and Jen Hoguet of FourthWall Theatrical said, "We are so grateful for this opportunity to collaborate with Michael and Patrick as they continue to pioneer a new genre and pull the curtain back on the echo chamber that is reality TV."

The creative team of This American Wife includes Stephanie Osin Cohen (Scenic Design), Virtual Design Collective (ViDCo) (Video Design), Cole McCarty (Costume Design), Amith Chandrashaker (Lighting Design), Kathryn Ruvuna (Sound Design), Tommy Kurzman (Hair & Makeup Designer), Abbie Betts (Stage Manager), Michael Rudd (Company Manager), Violet Tafari (Production Manager), and Angeline Wang (Line Producer).

Tickets can be purchased at www.thisamericanwife.live/. Nine live streamed performances, priced on a sliding scale of $5-$50, will take place May 20-24, 26-29 at 8 PM ET. Tickets to the video on demand recording of This American Wife, available May 31-June 6, 2021, are priced at $25 and $50.

In October 2020, Fake Friends, the creative minds behind This American Wife, debuted the queer comedy, Circle Jerk, to critical acclaim.

Breslin and Foley most recently executive produced and co-wrote the book for Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical, which raised a total of $2 million for The Actors Fund.

The cast and crew of This American Wife are following strict social distancing and safety guidelines during the creation and presentation of this production.

Please visit http://www.thisamericanwife.live/ for more information.

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