PERU

A trilogy.

 

In which normal just aint normal no more.

 

Set in the real life sleepy backwater city of Peru, Illinois, USA and inspired by various HBO TV series, Peru follows the marriage of Joe and Dorothea - in reverse.  But what you hear is not what you see on stage.  Perceptions are challenged but no judgments are formed.  It's all presented without comment.

 

 

In June 2014, I travelled to Peru, Illinois, to see what the place was really like in real life.  It was pretty much as I expected, sprawled over a vast area with not one, but two water towers that had become so iconically embedded in my online stalking of this small city. I wasn't expecting this - nor was I expecting one of them be loacted almost immediately within the gorunds of the Super 8 Motel that I'd checked into - opposite a closed down Bates type motel where a recent real murder had taken place.

 

 

 

But I fell in love with this small city: I interviewed the City Mayor, Scott Harl, and the Fire Chief, Jeff King in relation to the devastating Westclox factory fire of 2011 - which became the factual basis for my fictional re-telling.   And only in Peru, I guess, can you be drinking in a bar when a mile long freight train thunders by at slow speed at the back of the seating area.  

 

PERU 3

Selected as part of the So & So Club's Kick Up The Arts Festival, Peru was successfully presented as a work in development at the Tristan Bates Theatre, London on 25th July, 2013.

 

The play - and the two remaining peices - will be finished over the course of 2013-2104.

 

Cast:

Joe - Amanda Price

Dorothea - Emma Gable

Mrs. McCready - Elizabeth Holland

Miss Maisie - Kevin Golding

 

Directed by Mike Carter

 

PERU 2

Invited by the Salon:Collective to test bed the 2nd part of the trilogy in its Salon:Lab presentation at French's Theatre Bookshop on 2nd June, 2014, the new instalment introduced Joe to his mother (and stepfather).  Some home town truths, revelations and insights into what will pass.

 

 

Cast:

Joe - Amanda Price

Dorothea - Emma Gable

Sheryl - Jean Rogers

Bill - Freddie Pyne

 

Directed by: Dominic Kelly

 

You'll be back.  Cause now you got two addictions to feed.