Barbecue

By Robert O’Hara

In this hilarious and devastating comedy by Robert O‘Hara, the four O’Mallery siblings have planned a barbecue picnic for their youngest sister, Barbara, but it is more of an intervention to confront her outrageous behavior and reckless drug and alcohol use. We soon learn that the entire family is a mess and each sibling is in need of their own intervention. Lillie Anne calls James “white trash,” maybe because he brought a Taser along just in case Barbara gets out of hand. The scene ends – blackout. When the lights return, so do the four siblings: same park, same situation, same personalities, but they are black instead of white. From that moment the two parallel families alternate, and the barbecue becomes raucous and unpredictable. Racial politics collide with family stereotypes, survival and America’s fascination with self-destruction as entertainment.

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Tickets
$10 - $53
Runtime
TBD
Rating
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The Human Race Theatre Company

Executive DirectorKappy Kilburn

Artistic DirectorEmily N. Wells

Creative ProducerTara Lail

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Robert O’Hara

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About The Playwright

Robert O'HaraPlaywright

Robert O’Hara has received the NAACP Best Director Award, the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play, two Obie Awards and the Oppenheimer Award. He directed the World Premieres of Nikkole Salter and Dania Gurira’s In the Continuum, Tarell McCraney’s The Brother/Sister Plays (Part 2) and Colman Domingo’s Wild with Happy, as well as his own plays, BootyCandy and Insurrection: Holding History. His new plays, Zombie: The American and Barbecue, recently world premiered at Woolly Mammoth Theater and New York Shakespeare Festival, respectively.

He has directed around the country including Arena Stage, The Alley Theater, Primary Stages, Yale Rep, Woolly Mammoth, American Conservatory Theater, Magic Theater, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The Culture Project, The Flea, Philadelphia Theater Company, Wilma, Geva, City Theater, Dallas Theater Center, OSF and The Goodman Theater. He has been an Artist in Residence at the American Conservatory Theater, New York Shakespeare Festival, Theater/Emory and the Mellon Playwright in Residence at Woolly Mammoth, as well as a Visiting Professor at DePaul University School of the Arts and Adjunct at NYU/Tisch School of the Arts.

As a playwright, his work is produced all over the country and Mr. O’Hara has been commissioned by Playwrights Horizons, Steppenwolf, the Public Theatre, LaJolla Playhouse, McCarter Theater, Mark Taper Forum and Woolly Mammoth Theater. He is currently under commission from Lincoln Center and OSF. He has written screenplays for Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Jon Avnet, HBO, ABC, Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, New Line/Fine Line Cinema and Artisan Entertainment.

Mr. O’Hara has been awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship, a TCG Extended Collaboration Grant, NEA/TCG Fellowship, and was a Van Lier Fellow at New Dramatists. He received the LAMBDA Literary Award for best LGBT Drama, the Mark Taper Forum’s first Sherwood Award and the TANNE Award for Exceptional Body of Work.

He recently directed a new musical, UniSon, inspired by the poetry of August Wilson, at OSF; a new musical, Bella: An American Tall Tale, by Kirsten Childs, at Playwrights Horizons; and the Chicago premiere of Bootycandy.

He received his Directing MFA from Columbia University.

Biography and Photo courtesy of concordtheatricals.com