Rotterdam

Off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters

What do you do after living in the closet with your lesbian lover for 7 years, you find out that she identifies as a man and now wants to act on it just when you are about to come out to your family?  

This courageous new play by Jon Brittain takes place in the Port City of Rotterdam, current day on and around New Year’s Eve. It tells the story of two women who are both living in a world of secret identities.  Alice (Alice McCarthy) is an unsure lesbian who can’t come to terms with her sexuality enough to tell her family.  Fiona (Anna Martine Freeman) is a confident dyke with a fully supportive family, who is now coming to terms with the fact that she/he has identified as a man most of her life.   Alice becomes greatly confused when Fiona wants to start living as Adrian, a man.   ‘What does that make me’, she asks?  It’s a very good question, and one that is becoming very real in many people’s lives today.

Writer Jon Brittain takes you on a deeply emotional journey that is not drawn in a straight line, but with many complex twists and turns that will have you completely immersed.  Rounding out the cast is Josh (Ed Eales-White) who is Fiona’s brother, and  plays an interesting role in both women’s lives, and Lelani (Ellie Morris) who is Alice’s co-worker and takes the ‘other woman’ role. The subject matter is perfect fuel for emotional outbursts that are convincingly portrayed by this stunning cast and neatly directed by Donnacadh O’Briain.

While this production has won an Olivier Award and is worthy of a larger space than the 60-seat theatre C at 59E59, Ellan Parry has done a remarkable job with the set.  It’s colorful and multi-dimensional with a secret doorway system that peek into Alice and Fiona’s lives both together and separately.  A simple pair rolling tables and Lucite chairs transform the set from apartment, to office, to pub and anywhere else they want to take you.   Do not miss this queer production which runs through June 10, 2017.  For tickets and more information visit http://www.59e59.org and check my website for available discounts here

-ThisbroadSway 5/20/17.