Bridge Rep of Boston to Open Season with DOG PADDLE

In its first three years, Bridge Rep has mounted a variety of innovative work, from sold-out classics to the tune of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and Oscar Wilde's Salomé, to new plays, such as the 2016 Elliot Norton Award-winning The Launch Prize. In Year Four, the vibrant company expands their repertoire with a United States premiere-Reto Finger's Swiss play, Dog Paddle (or, struggling inelegantly against drowning).

Directed by Guy Ben-Aharon, and featuring a dynamic cast of fresh Boston talent, Dog Paddle follows five 30-somethings as they navigate love, life, friendship, and disappointment. Beginning with an end, the play unfolds out of Charlotte and Robert's breakup (played by Esme Allen and Omar Robinson, respectively). What begins as a thoroughly civil separation soon spirals out of control with Robert's refusal to move out of their apartment. As her determination to move on grows stronger, manifested by bringing home new boyfriends, his commitment to passivity becomes more and more fixed.

With an honest, poetic, and hilarious voice, this production takes on the tidal waves and ripple effects of tough realizations and life's transitions. Both sweet, and devastating, this 60-minute piece examines how we stay afloat-or, as the playwright puts it, struggling inelegantly against drowning.

Dog Paddle will play August 4 - August 20 at the Studio Theater at Central Square Theater.