THE BEAST Written by and Starring Eddie Perfect to Tour Australia

Written by and starring Eddie Perfect, and directed by Simon Phillips, The Beast is an organic, free range, jet-black comedy that holds a hand-crafted chef's blade to the throat of modern Australia.

When three tree-changing couples flee their dark past, they quickly find country life is not all (locally sourced) peaches and (hand churned, bicycle-delivered) cream. After an Angus calf is purchased for a respectful, face-your-food, nose-to-tail dinner party, the reality of life on the land is more confronting than any of them could have imagined.

Eddie Perfect's confronting, disturbing and hilarious play gleefully tears apart middle-class trends, social climbers, foodies, wine-snobs, helicopter parents, self-serving do-gooders and self-righteous gardeners.

There will be blood. There will be food. There will be perfectly matched wine. It's the worst dinner party ever. And you're invited.

On making the announcement, Eddie said: I've always relished black comedy, but I was genuinely surprised by the impact The Beast had on Melbourne audiences. It gave me heart that the rest of the country might also enjoy a night of bloody and twisted comedy. The central conceit of The Beast is based on an actual dinner party I attended in the Yarra Valley, an hour outside of Melbourne. A 14-month old, 450kg female Angus calf was purchased for an evening of nose to tail eating. But after the mobile butcher injured his hand and was rushed to emergency, it made me wonder just how far I'd be prepared to go in order to face my food.

"I'm delighted to once again be teaming up with Simon Phillips, the busiest and best director on the planet, who has miraculously found time in his schedule to corral an A1 cast of comic actors (and me). We're determined to bring Australian audiences something truly hilarious, confronting and unforgettable."

Eddie Perfect is one of Australia's most diverse, respected and prolific writer/composer/performers, having made his mark in the fields of comedy, music theatre composition, playwriting, screenwriting, classical music, jazz and acting for stage and screen. Perhaps best known for his portrayal of Mick Holland on Ten's Offspring, as a judge on Australia's Got Talent and as the new host of Play School, Eddie has won multiple awards for his work both as a performer and a writer.

The Beast features a stellar cast including Heidi Arena (The Librarians, Audrey's Kitchen, Little Lunch, Nowhere Boys), Alison Bell (Upper Middle Class Bogan, House Husbands, Offspring, Hedda Gabler), Christie Whelan Browne (Peter Allen: Not The Boy Next Door, The Rocky Horror Show, Singin' in The Rain), Peter Houghton (The Pitch, Endagame, The China Incident, Gallipoli, The Eye Of The Storm, Newstopia, Howzat! Kerrie Packer's War), Rohan Nichol (Shane Warne The Musical, Upper Middle Class Bogan, A Place To Call Home), Eddie Perfect (Offspring, Shane Warne The Musical, Keating! The Musical, Babes In The Wood, Drink Pepsi Bitch, The Big Con) and Toby Truslove (Last Man Standing, Utopia, Eurovision Quiz Show, Children Of The Sun).

"Funny, heartbreaking and politically incorrect: Eddie Perfect's first play is a winner." Crikey

For more information on tour stops and dates go to: www.thebeastplay.com

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