The Hilberry Theatre is very excited to announce that we have been granted the rare opportunity to produce Lisa D'Amour's new play, Detroit, before its worldwide release! In honor of our 50th season, the Hilberry will mount a premiere production of the Pulitzer-Prize finalist in January 2013. After development at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, D'Amour's brutal, hilarious play makes its London premiere this summer at the National Theatre, and Playwright Horizons will host the New York premiere in August. But you can catch this provocative new comedy January 11 - April 15, 2013 right here in Midtown.

In a first-ring suburb just outside a city that could be Detroit (or any other metropolitan city), Ben and Mary see sudden signs of life at the deserted house next door and invite their new neighbors Sharon and Kenny over for a barbecue. As the action unfolds, we learn that Sharon and Kenny met in rehab, neither is employed, and they don't own a stick of furniture. The fledgling friendship soon veers out of control, shattering the fragile hold Ben and Mary have on their way of life - with unexpected comic consequences. Detroit is a fresh, off-beat look at the seductive moment when we dare to open ourselves up to something new.

"Here is what's exciting," says director Lavinia Hart, "Lisa D'Amour is a living playwright; she's won an Obie Award; she's an interdisciplinary artist. She's going to take us to the edge of what's going on with playwrights of the here-and-now and how they reflect the world in which we live." D'Amour chose the title of the play even though the play doesn't necessarily have to be set in Detroit. "But the play is a Detroit story - we're a city bereft of revenue, neighborhoods, and opportunity. We live in a city of a dwindling work force, including firefighters and police officers, but Detroiters are survivors and their sense of humor is gritty and wry," says Hart.

Read more here.  

Vanessa Sawson, Brent Griffith, Alec Barbour in "Major Barbara"

Photo credit: Jillian Zylinski