BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY Comes to the Gamm

The Gamm will present Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy-drama Between Riverside and Crazy. Jeff Church, artistic director of Pawtucket’s Burbage Theatre Company and a frequent Gamm actor, makes his Gamm directorial debut with Guirgis’ delightfully off-kilter and unvarnished portrayal of beating the odds in an unforgiving world. 

Cliff Odle, as an embittered ex-NYPD cop, and Gamm newcomer Daniel Washington in the role of his fresh-out-of-jail son, form the nexus of a captivating collection of characters inhabiting a deliciously dizzying plot. From themes of racism to the outsized role of real estate in our lives, Between Riverside and Crazy is a wild ride from start to finish.

Church reflected on what drew him to Guirgis’ play.

“A masterwork by one of our great American Playwrights, Between Riverside and Crazy is funny, heartbreaking, incisive, and unapologetic. Guirgis is a master of finding the sacred in the profane, or rather revealing that profanity is subjective and morality is relative when life hits hard. His characters are intricately crafted, yet effortlessly complex. They are gloriously flawed and immensely complicated. It is in these contradictions, through the raw immensity of their humanity, that we see ourselves and the thread of grace that runs through Guirgis’ work,” he said. “It is a feast for an ensemble and crew as talented and eager as this one. This production promises to be a raucous and electric night of theater. This is a perfect play for The Gamm stage and a thrilling continuation of its 40th anniversary season.”

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