- Title: USA: New play performed in Central park New York toilet
- Date: 22nd March 2008
- Summary: (L!2) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (MARCH 18, 2008) (REUTERS) CENTRAL PARK VARIOUS OF BATHROOM ENTRANCE IN CENTRAL PARK
- Embargoed: 6th April 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Usa
- Country: USA
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
- Reuters ID: LVACVX9HCVSJWBP6TH1BPXW2TUOS
- Story Text: Prostitutes and politicians take to the restrooms of New York in a new play actually performed in a Central Park bathroom.
A Central Park restroom is the latest venue for New York City theatre, giving new meaning to the phase "that stinks". Entitled "Ladies and Gents," the show is a two-act play that takes place among the stalls and toilets of the men's and women's bathrooms.
Written by playwright Paul Walker, the story is the tale of prostitutes and politicians in 1950s Dublin, Ireland, and is actually set in a public restroom, where the sordid characters have meetings and sexual interludes.
The play was originally performed in the bathrooms of a large park in Dublin before heading to other destinations in the U.K., and finally to New York's Central Park.
Walker said the windowless, dark, and erie bathrooms in the park were the perfect setting for his noir-thriller, and allowed the audience to literally become part of the play.
"With sight specific, the audience are actually inside, in with you. It's a three dimensional building, so it's like being in the middle of a film because the actors are nose to nose with the audience. So it gives a whole different vibe to it," said Walker.
The show's theme of politicians and prostitutes is very topical in New York, as New York's Governor Elliott Spitzer stepped down from office last week due to allegations of having liaisons with a high-end call girl.
Walker said his play's similarity to modern day news is sheer coincidence.
"As we were rehearsing, all the New York stuff was breaking at the same time and we thought, this was really weird. Some of the quotes people were saying in their speeches are actually like some of the lines that are in the play which is quite bizarre."
And what's it like to act in the bathroom? Well for actor John O'Callaghan, who plays a man who forces his wife to turn tricks in the restroom, it's just another venue, albeit a funnier one.
"All my friends are saying that my career is in the toilet. It's leaves yourself open to a lot of jokes, a lot of sceptical humour," said O'Callaghan.
"Ladies and Gents" will run at the Bethesda Fountain restrooms in Central Park through March 29. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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