House of Blue Leaves

House of Blue Leaves, written by John Guare, is a biting commentary about our society’s cancerous obsession with celebrity and the corrosive nature of the media and the lure of fame. It’s 1965 and the Pope is coming to New York to address the war in Vietnam. In a time when the American dream has failed terribly, the play’s characters desperately turn to the Pope’s visit for their possible salvation. Trapped in his Queens apartment, zookeeper Artie dreams of becoming a Hollywood composer. His mentally deranged wife, Bananas, realizes his efforts are mediocre and even worse; his mistress, Bunny, suspects the same, yet pushes him to run away with her. In the meantime, Artie’s son, Ronnie, is AWOL from the Army and is secretly preparing to assassinate His Holiness in his own attempt to seek fame and immortality. Throw three maniacal nuns, a B movie director, his starlet girfriend, and explosions into the mix, and the stage is set for hilarious farce. Michael Medici directs.