In Essential Self-Defense, disgruntled outcast
Yul Carroll takes a job as an attack dummy in a woman's self-defense class and finds himself mysteriously drawn to Sadie,
the repressed bookworm mercilessly honing her skills on him. Meanwhile, all's not well on the unassuming Midwestern streets of Bloggs:
with local children vanishing at an alarming rate, our hero, his lady friend, and a motley assortment of poets, butchers, and punk librarians
prepare to battle the darkness on the edge of town. Gurnet Theatre Project presents the Boston premiere of the new comedy from acclaimed
playwright and Pulitzer Prize finalist, Adam Rapp (Nocturne, Stone Cold Dead Serious, Red Light Winter).
“Rapp is a fresh voice with no fear. The journey is filled with oddball joy.”
Newsday
What Boston's top theatre critics said about Gurnet Theate
Project's ESSENTIAL SELF-DEFENSE at the BCA...
"A lively Boston premiere" - The Boston Globe
"The cast are so uniformly excellent..." - Edge Boston
"Did I mention there's a rock band on stage? And they're kickin'!" -
Theater Mirror
"[Chelsea] Cipolla is gosh-darn cute as Sadie" - The Boston Herald
"In the lead roles, Chelsea Cipolla and Adam Garcia do wonders to
instill cartoonishly sketched characters with a touching humanity.
Cipolla is a dimpled emissary of optimism, and Garcia brings nice
shadings to Yul's gradual, and never quite complete, normalization." -
The Boston Globe
"Director Brian C. Fahey stresses the eccentricity in the script,
getting witty, wacky performances from Garcia, Cipolla, Rachel Hunt as
the hostess with the mostest at an original-song-only karaoke club and
from Foster Johns as a wild Russian poet. Brett Marks is very scary as
the butcher whose bark is worse than his handshake. Everyone in the
production makes ESSENTIAL SELF-DEFENSE well, essential to see." -
Theater Mirror
Essential Self Defense contains brief strong language and adult content.
It is intended for a mature audience
Produced through special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing.
