Autobahn To Premiere In Toronto

Neil LaBute's short-play cycle to receive Canadian premiere

Mar 1, 2007

Neil LaBute, the acclaimed playwright and director known for his plays The Shape Of Things, The Mercy Seat and This Is How It Goes, gets a rare look north of the border.

Autobahn is part of Theatre Best/Before's inaugural season of play readings. In January 2007, they presented John Patrick Shanley's The Dreamer Examines His Pillow, and they continue their season with the Canadian professional premiere of LaBute's short-play cycle that premiered in New York City at the MCC Theatre in 2004.

Theatre Best/Before is a theatre company in Toronto dedicated to re-introducing the lesser-known texts of established playwrights through the medium of a play reading. By breaking away all theatrical conventions, the focus is then placed on the playwrights' words and allows the actor and audience to concentrate on them solely.

"Be it the medium for clandestine couplings, arguments, shelter or ultimately transportation, the automobile is perhaps the most authentically American of spaces. In Autobahn, Neil LaBute’s provocative new collection of one-act plays set within the confines of the front seat, the playwright employs his signature plaintive insight to great effect, investigating the inchoate apprehension that surrounds the steering wheel. Each of these seven brief vignettes explores the ethos of perception and relationship – from a make-out session gone awry to a kidnapping thinly disguised as a road trip, from a reconnaissance mission involving the rescue of a Nintendo 64 to a daughter’s long ride home after her release from rehab. The result is an unsettling montage that gradually reveals the scabrous force of words left unsaid while illuminating the delicate interplay between intention and morality, capturing the essence of Middle America and the myriad paths that cross its surface."

The play will be directed by Charles Roy, and features Sarah Dineen (An Undershirt - Fringe 2006), Ryan Symington (The Taming Of The Shrew), Laura Duralija (FOOT Festival, Queen's Players Toronto), Kelly Whelan (Man Of La Mancha, Much Ado About Nothing - A.C.T. Productions), Carin Lowerison, Adam Seybold (TV's The Smart Woman's Survival Guide), and Scott Carmichael (Man Of La Mancha, Art - A.C.T. Productions).

Neil Labute is a critically acclaimed playwright, filmmaker, and fiction writer. His controversial works include the plays bash: latterday plays, The Distance From Here, The Mercy Seat, Fat Pig, and This Is How It Goes; the films In The Company Of Men, Your Friends And Neighbors, Nurse Betty, and Possession; the play and film adaptation of The Shape Of Things; and the short-story collection Seconds Of Pleasure. His latest work, Some Girl(s) played in New York City in a production starring Eric McCormick in 2006.

Autobahn will be performed on Sunday, March 25 and Monday, March 26 at 7 p.m. at the Walmer Centre Theatre in Toronto. Tickets are $10, and are general admission. For more information or to book tickets, call the box office at 416-892-4593 or email the company.

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