Australian Drama The Boys to Have NY Premiere in Sept.

Outhouse Theatre Company has announced the American premiere of The Boys, the award-winning drama by Australian playwright Gordon Graham about three brothers in a run-down Australian suburb whose brutal attitudes about women may have led them to commit a violent crime.  The show will run from August 30th through September 23rd, with an opening date of September 8th, at the Kraine Theatre (85 East 4th Street, between 2nd and 3rd Ave.).

Featuring Fiana Toibin (Broadway's Long Day's Journey Into Night and The Weir) and Kimberly Cooper (star of Aussie TV's "Home and Away") the production will be directed by Craig Baldwin.  It will also feature Sarah-Jane Casey, Nico Evers-Swindell, Angela Ledgerwood, Nick Stevenson and Jeremy Waters.

The Boys "takes a hard-hitting look at male violence towards women and the many factors that fuel it," according to press notes. "When Brett Sprague is released from prison, younger brothers Glenn and Stevie throw him a homecoming party. As the beer flows, tensions begin to arise between the boys and their women: hot-headed Brett accuses his girlfriend of infidelity while he was locked up, the passive Glenn becomes angered by his controlling girlfriend's haughty attitude toward his family, and Stevie wants to dump his pregnant girlfriend despite his mother's demands to the contrary. The brothers' anger soon turns into rage against women in general and they leave the party together. The next day a woman is found brutally raped and murdered and the brothers are taken into custody. But are the boys capable of committing such a violent act?"

The play premiered in 1991 at the Stables Theatre in Sydney, Australia, where it won the prestigious Australian Writers Guild Award.

Graham's other plays include Innocent Bystanders (London's Royal Court Theatre), Demolition Job, Hanging Together, and Earl.  His first novel, Stuffed, was published in 2001, followed by Top Bloke (Random House) in 2004. He has also written for television and radio, and worked extensively in journalism.

"Outhouse Theatre Company is dedicated to the cultivation and development of both emerging and established Australian theatre artists. The company's work explores the similarities and differences between Australian and American cultures and produces theatre that fuses the respective strengths of both countries' theatrical traditions to create fresh new work for the New York stage."

The performance schedule is Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 PM. Tickets are $18 and are available through Smarttix at (212) 868-4444 or via the web at www.smarttix.com. For more information on the production, visit www.OuthouseTheatre.com.