Pirira – Location, Tickets, Reviews
In J.Stephen Brantley’s Pirira, two stories set on opposite sides of the world unfold.
The first, set in the stock room of a wholesale florist in New York City, follows Chad, a native New Yorker and a proud gay man, who engages in a fervent (and slightly awkward) conversation with his new co-worker, Gilbert–a conservative, Christian student from the nation of Malawi.
The second, which takes place in Lilongwe, Malawi, involves two American aid workers who seek safety from protest riots in the supply closet of a struggling NGO.
Both scenarios unfurl simultaneously on stage, overlapping in movement and dialogue.
Pirira is a powerful, intimate production that delivers an eye-opening message about the harsh political and social conditions plaguing the small African nation of Malawai, from its AIDS epidemic and lack of clean drinking water, to its poor governance and dismal economy.
Buoyed by an intelligent script that’s dotted with humor, Brantley’s work courageously delves into sensitive issues related to rape, religion, and homosexuality through expert character development. Ultimately, the work unveils the factor that connects all of the characters, and the heartbreaking significance of the play’s name.
LOCATION
West End Theatre
263 West 86th Street
New York City
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RUNNING TIME
1 hour and 10 minutes, no intermission
TICKETS
$30 – $50 (click here for tickets)
DATES
Performances through November 24, 2013
REVIEWS
Theatre Is Easy
Over the course of a brisk 70 minutes, the two couples struggle to connect across their respective differences. All four actors are excellent.
TheaterMania
Baidoo portrays Gilbert with an eerie authenticity and an unwavering Malawian accent . . . Flaherty accentuates Chad’s humor-as-a-defense-mechanism tactics in a way that is simultaneously hilarious and uncomfortable. Perez and Brantley have a natural chemistry and conversational style that puts dramatic stakes behind prose that could easily devolve into a laundry list of statistics and facts for hand-wringing socially conscious liberals.
NYtheater Now
Please see Pirira, or read it, or both, because it will open your mind and heart, not just to the circumstances of people halfway around the world whose particular situations almost certainly don’t find their way into our (American) field of awareness very much; but also to remember important ideas of our shared humanity and of our comfy self-righteousness and arrogance.
Huffington Post
Brantley, who drew on his experiences as both an American aid worker in Malawi and an openly gay man, is anything but heavy-handed, and infuses Pirira with enough wit and subtle humor to keep things moving even during the play’s more obtuse moments.
CAST & CREW
(partial list)
Written by J.Stephen Brantley
Directed by Ari Laura Kreith
Featuring Adrian Baidoo, J.Stephen Brantley, Todd Flaherty and Flor de Liz Perez