PRIVATE MANNING GOES TO WASHINGTON Set for Edinburgh Festival Fringe

The Representatives will be premiering their latest production, Private Manning Goes to Washington, at the 2016 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, running from 15-27 August, at theSpace @ Niddry Street (V9).

Private Manning Goes to Washington is a new two-person play by Stan Richardson, starring E. James Ford and Matt Steiner, imagining a secret meeting between US President Barack Obama and transgender whistleblower Chelsea Manning currently imprisoned under the Espionage Act for leaking documents to Julian Assange of Wikileaks), as told through the eyes of hacktivist Aaron Swartz. The play explores the parallel contributions of these two activists while exposing the agonizing and sometimes deadly human consequences of the Obama Administration's unprecedented crackdown on whistleblowers, hackers, and the media.

The Representatives is the collaboration of playwright Stan Richardson and actor Matt Steiner based in New York City. Since 2012, they have presented 14 new works, ranging from their signature apartment plays to larger site-specific pieces. TDF dubbed The Representatives "an underground theatre sensation" and they were also recognized as one of the "Top 10 Theater Experiences" by BroadwayWorld.com for their hyper-intimate, invitation-only productions performed in apartments, churches, restaurants and other alternative venues. Their most recent production of Stan Richardson's Veritas, the tragic true story of a secret gay witch-­hunt at Harvard in 1920, was featured in the American Theatre Magazine's "Deaf Talent, See and Heard" and heralded as "agonizingly vivid" by Andy Webster of The New York Times.

Performances of Private Manning Goes to Washington run from 15-27 August, Monday - Saturday, at 22:10pm at theSpace @ Niddry Street in Edinburgh, Scotland. Tickets are now on sale at edfringe.com. For more information, visit therepresentatives.org and thespaceuk.com.