Back of the Throat

“The post 9/11 play we’ve been waiting for: the sum of all of our domestic fears, played for uneasy laughs and piercing dread” — Newsday

“Someone from the Bush administration really needs to see ‘Back of the Throat’… a real find” — The New York Times

The Flea Theater presents the New York premiere of Back of the Throat by acclaimed Arab-American playwright Yussef El Guindi. Produced throughout the US, this dark comedy about our rapidly eroding civil liberties won the 2004 Northwest Playwright’s Competition, was an American Theater Critics Association/ Steinberg New Play Award nominee and was hailed by the Seattle Times as one of the Best of 2005. Flea Artistic Director Jim Simpson directs.

Back of the Throat begins with an innocuous Homeland Security investigation and quickly moves into a subversive discovery of fear, race, and the engine of suspicion. Following a heinous terrorist attack, an Arab-American writer is visited by two government officials. What begins as a friendly inquiry soon devolves into a chilling, full-blown investigation of his presumed ties to terrorists. At times surreal and comic, Back of the Throat examines the way in which facts, evidence and (mis)perceptions are used to distort the truth and how racial profiling impacts the relationship between the accusers and the accused.

EXTENDED!
Performances resume May 11.

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