Hurricane Diane
March 22 - April 16, 2022
Written By: Madeleine George
The hilarious HURRICANE DIANE stars Lauren Thompson, Susannah Wells, Erin McKenna, Jessica Miano Kruel, and Caroline Taylor.
HILARIOUS “HURRICANE DIANE” BLOWING INTO THE RED BARN THEATRE
What if the Greek God Dionysus, deity of wine and ecstasy, suddenly walked into your kitchen and announced that it was time mankind shaped up and started taking care of “his” planet and that you and your girlfriends were going to be the first acolytes in his quest to bring the Earth back to its natural, unsullied state? What could go wrong, right?
This is the reality-bending set-up for the hilarious new play, “Hurricane Diane”, set to open at the Red Barn Theatre in Key West on March 22 for a four-week run. Written by Pulitzer Prize finalist Madeleine George, the play will feature a who’s who of Key West women, including Erin McKenna, Caroline Taylor, Susannah Wells, Jessica Miano Kruel, and Lauren Thompson. It will be directed by Red Barn artistic director, Joy Hawkins.
George launches her play right from “Lights Up”. We meet Dionysus immediately, though not as we might expect. He has morphed into a rabble-rousing lesbian gardener from Vermont named Diane, and she’s chosen four suburban New Jersey housewives – think a sophisticated, socially-conscious version of a “Real Housewives” show and you won’t be far off – to join his efforts at reclaiming the natural beauty of the planet.
The four women all live on a cul-de-sac in flood-prone Red Bank, New Jersey in identical cookie-cutter houses. They regularly gather over wine and coffee to gossip about anything but the latest portents for the climate. There’s control freak Carol, who just wants a well-manicured lawn; and Renee, a top editor at HGTV Magazine; and Pam, an Italian dragon in animal prints; and weepy Beth, who’s just been left by her husband.
Into this coffee klatch comes lesbian landscape gardener Diane, livid at humanity for “despoiling the green earth that gave you life.” She has great plans – not the least of which involve indulging her Dionysian proclivities – and she’s going to begin right here, right now.
Will Diane be able to enlist them all? Will this diverse band of suburban women be inspired by the appetites of their divine visitor to unleash their wildness to help the battered planet? Maybe. Maybe not. You’ll have to see.
To say the play is outrageously funny is a given. But it also carries a subtextual message that has profound relevance in this day and age. Called “incisively smart and boisterously funny” by the Boston Globe, “clever and timely” by New York Theater, and “An astonishing new play” by the NY Times, “Hurricane Diane” lives up to its fantastical premise.
Tickets are available at redbarntheatre.com or by calling 305-296-9911. The play is sponsored in part by The Dogwood Foundation, Design Group Key West, and the Monroe County Tourist Development Council.