Local playwright Robert Ford has done it again.
The writer of The Fall of the House and Girl Band in the Men’s Room has written a new play called Look Away, and TheatreSquared will bring that story to life with a world premier set of performances beginning this week in Fayetteville.
The show, developed over the past three years as part of the Arkansas New Play Festival, is based on true events in Arkansas and will open with a preview performance on Thursday, Jan. 29 at Nadine Baum Studios. After that, the show will run through Feb. 22.
The drama, set in Wilson, Arkansas in 1933, opens with the shouts of an angry mob on the trail of two black men, exhausted and terrified, who find a door and slip inside the kitchen of a powerful local family. Soon, they find out they are not alone.
“The stakes are incredibly high in this new drama — an intimate emotional thriller with profound themes, based on true events,” said Martin Miller, executive director for TheatreSquared. “This is a play about two young men on the most difficult night of their lives. They can’t face it alone. But who can they trust?”
The show will be staged by acclaimed director Benny Sato Ambush (Old Globe Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival), and the cast features Thomas Brazzle, Rebecca Harris (Good People), Erik Parillo, Daniel Kyri, and Justin Walker (One Man, Two Guvnors).
On Tuesday, Jan. 27, Fayetteville Public Library will host a forum on the new show, featuring Ford, director Ambush, historian Jeannie Whayne and the cast of Look Away at Fayetteville Public Library. The forum will begin at 6 p.m., and will take place in the Walker Room.
A full list of performances of Look Away is available at theatre2.org.
Tickets range from $15-$40 ($10 for patrons under 30 years of age) and are available at waltonartscenter.org, or by calling the box office at 479-443-5600.
