Jonathan Leaf's The Caterers Runs Off-Broadway Oct. 6-30
By: BWW News Desk Sep. 24, 2005
Directed by Immediate Theater Company artistic director Jose Zayas (Obscene Jesters, The Maid's Tragedy), the play is set "in 1977, (when) a group of Islamic radicals brought the Nation's capitol to a two-day stand still, storming several buildings and holding 120 people hostage. The act of terrorism was in response to Mohammed, Messenger of God, a film that the radical group, Hanafi, had deemed profanely offensive and sacrilegious. Twenty people were injured and a reporter was killed before hostage negotiators were finally able to end the siege. Not a single member of Hanafi had ever viewed the film.In The Caterers, Leaf re-imagines these events in the present day, telling the story of two caterers who become trapped in a screening room the night of the film's premiere. Cornered by an Islamic radical, whose mission is to steal the blasphemous film, the couple, held hostage along with the film's screenwriter, try to hold onto their lives and convince their captor that the film is not what it would seem. For a tense 80 minutes, the cat and mouse game ensues, as each of the four struggle to protect their art, their religion and their lives."The play will feature in its cast Judith Hawking (Living Out at Second Stage, Ivanov at Lincoln Center) Ian Blackman (The Man Who Came to Dinner, The House of Blue Leaves), Peter Reznikoff (Far and Wide at the Mint Theater and Richard III at NYSF) and Brian Wallace (productions at Trinity Rep, Berkshire Theater Festival and the George Street Playhouse).
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