Hickory – The much anticipated comedy, BARBECUE, by Robert O’Hara, will begin its nine performance run this Friday, February 23 at 7:30pm in the Firemen’s Kitchen at the Hickory Community Theatre. Additional performances this weekend will be at 7:30pm on Saturday, February 24 and at 2:30pm on Sunday, February 25.
At this BARBECUE don’t expect hamburgers, potato salad and cold drinks. This O’Mallery family get-together is ripped from reality TV. Five dysfunctional siblings gather at a fake barbecue to lure one of their own, the drug-and-alcohol-addicted Barbara (aka Zippity Boom), to an intervention, hoping to get her into rehab—though it soon becomes clear that they might all be candidates for intervention. To describe the plot any further would spoil the fun. However it’s not too much of a spoiler to reveal that the play features two casts of actors who each share a role as two versions of the same family hash out their differences.
Robert O’Hara’s raucous and startling plot keeps you guessing. The playwright, winner of the NAACP Best Play and Best Director Awards, the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play, two Obies, and the Herb Alpert Award dishes up juxtapositions of race, social class, sibling hatred, and tear-jerking emotions perfectly turned into award-winning performance art, called “rawly funny” by The New York Times.
The play will run for three weekends, from February 23 through March 9. Performances are at 7:30 pm on Fridays and Saturdays and 2:30pm on Sundays. There is a bonus Thursday performance on March 7 at 7:30pm as well.
Tickets for BARBECUE are $16 for adults and $10 for students. Tickets may be purchased online at hickorytheatre.org or by phone at 828-328-2283.
BARBECUE is rated R for adult language, themes and situations.
PHOTO: Jordan Randall (left) and Matthew White both share the role of James T. in BARBECUE. Photo by Eric Seale.
