Manhattan Theatre Source, Jim Lawson, Artistic Director, presents MY EXPATRIATE, a nuclear family fission, by Bill C. Davis at the theatre's Washington Square Park home, 177 MacDougal Street.
It is black Friday 2004. After a disastrous family Thanksgiving on Cape Cod, Muddy runs away from her home - and her husband. She arrives at her much beloved grandson Kemper's country home in upstate New York with a bottle of scotch, and brimming with family secrets ripe to be revealed, only to discover that Kemper, disenchanted with the political and social climate as well as the recent national election, is planning to leave the country. Kemper's father Kenneth then arrives to deliver Muddy back to her life. Fight or flight? Muddy tries to convince her expatriate grandson to stay and fight for the country she loves and he is about to give up on, as Kenneth insists Muddy stay and fight for the marriage she is ready to abandon, initiating a battle of wills that exposes the need each has for the other - and for a true sense of home.
A challenging and intelligent drama with flashes of on-point humor, MY EXPATRIATE has fresh resonance for the era of political and social change we continually find ourselves in. MY EXPATRIATE will star Tandy Cronyn as Muddy. Ms Cronyn last appeared at Manhattan Theatre Source as Georgia O'Keefe in Joan Tewkesbury's RETROSPECTIVE. MY EXPATRIATE will also feature Brad Fraizer as Kemper and Jefferson Slinkard as Kenneth.
Bill C. Davis is the author of MASS APPEAL, which premiered at The Manhattan Theatre Club, produced by Lynne Meadow, directed by Geraldine Fitzgerald. On Broadway, it received the Outer Critic's Circle Award. Most recently, his play AVOW, played at the Forty Fifth Street Theatre to glowing reviews; the New York Times called it "timely and provocative," while Gordon Cox of Newsday said it was, "a lively and provocative debate about the most fundamental and essential questions that human beings face... AVOW contains plenty of lively theological debate, but it's first and foremost a rich and complex human drama. Let me add that there is also a good deal of genuine humor in this play." Mr. Davis' other plays, Spine, Wrestlers, and Dancing in The End Zone, have received numeroUs Productions around the country and the world, with such stars as Elaine Stritch, Lois Nettleton, Mark Harmon, Dan Butler, ElizaBeth Berridge and Justin Kirk, and directors such as Geraldine Fitzgerald, Jack Hofsiss, Gillian Lynne, Melvin Bernhardt and Michael Parva. Upcoming works - The Sex King, Open For Me and Austin's Bridge. <http://www.billcdavis.com/>
MY EXPATRIATE written and directed by Bill C. Davis at Manhattan Theatre Source,177 MacDougal Street, between Waverly Place and West Eighth Street, (Subway: A/C/E or B/D/F/V to West 4th) Wednesday through Saturday at 8pm. Tickets are $18. Tickets may be purchased in advance at www.theatresource.org or reservations can be placed by calling (212) 501-4751.
Opens: Wednesday, May 20 th. Closes: Saturday May 30th.
