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PG-13

Building the Wall

Written by Robert Schenkkan
Ubu's Other Shoe Artistic Direction by Michael Siebrass
Directed by John Battalino

Show Times

July 27 – July 28, 2018

Fri @ 7 pm
Sat @ 2 pm & 7 pm

About

In a play that recalls George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and the Nazi regime, BUILDING THE WALL is a terrifying and gripping exploration of what happens if we let fear win.

It’s the near future and millions of undocumented immigrants have been detained in overflowing prisons. Now, a writer interrogates the director of a private prison as he awaits sentencing for carrying out the federal policy that has escalated into the unimaginable. This riveting and illuminating drama delivers a powerful warning and puts a human face on the inhuman, revealing how, when personal accountability is denied, what seems inconceivable becomes inevitable.

Read a review of the New York production HERE.

Read a review of the Los Angeles production HERE.

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About the Author

Playwright ROBERT SCHENKKAN is a Pulitzer-prize winning, Tony@ Award winning, Writer’s Guild Award winning, three-time Emmy nominated writer of Stage, Television, and Film. He is the author of fourteen original full-length plays, two musicals, and a collection of one-act plays. He co-wrote the feature film, HACKSAW RIDGE (six Academy Award nominations) and THE QUIET AMERICAN, and his television credits include: ALL THE WAY, THE PACIFIC, THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN and SPARTACUS.

About Ubu’s Other Shoe & Staged Readings
A staged reading is a form of theatre without sets or full costumes and props. The actors read from scripts, sometimes using music stands. They may be seated, stand in fixed positions, or incorporate minimal stage movement.

SLO REP’s staged reading series is named after the infamous trilogy of plays written by Alfred Jarry (Ubu Roi) that were banned from the stage after riots erupted on opening night. Ubu’s Other Shoe pays homage to the spirit of Jarry and to all artists who strive to explore the fringes of their art. This exciting series exists to offer actors, directors and audience members an opportunity to experience incredible plays that do not necessarily fit into our regular main stage season. Thank you for taking this journey with us.

Reviews

[A] terrifyingly plausible work of dystopian fiction…Step by step, Schenkkan gets us to see the way the collapse of institutions leads to the collapse of morality and the rule of law.
– LA Times
There’s a hold-your-breath inevitability to what is finally disclosed in “Building the Wall,” the powerful dystopian drama about life in the Donald Trump era by Robert Schenkkan. You hear it in the distant, unnerving soundscape. You see it as two characters increasingly come to grips with their worst fears. Most of all, you feel it in the gut, because what the writer imagines is not so much a fanciful futurist leap but a calculated cautionary tale, taking place just two years from now.
– Variety
...a very rare political work that speaks directly to its time from its time.
– NY Times

Cast

Rick
Michael Siebrass
Gloria
Noelle McGhee

Sponsors

Gina Kirk

Ubu's Other Shoe Season Sponsor

Toast of the Town

Presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc.

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