Kitchen Theatre Company Presents Steven Dietz's LONELY PLANET

Following the wildly successful world premiere of The House, which rang in the 24th season, Kitchen Theatre Company is pleased to offer Steven Dietz's powerful and moving LONELY PLANET. LONELY PLANET tells the story of two friends, Jody and Carl, who use their wit and sense of absurdity to negotiate the turbulent world at the height of the AIDS crisis. Lonely Planet begins previews on October 15, with opening night on October 18. The play runs until November 2.

Carl and Jody are close friends but very different from one another. Carl, a chameleon of a man, tells stories about his life, claiming variously to be an art restorer, a tabloid journalist, a plant waterer, or an auto glass replacer; he is a ball of energy exploding constantly. Jody, Carl's best friend, is the opposite. He has retreated from the upheaval outside, preferring to ponder the Greenland problem inside his map store. Each day, Carl charges into their intimate, fabricated world at full throttle, challenging Jody to keep up and play along until reality becomes unavoidably real.

Artistic Director Rachel Lampert has thought about producing LONELY PLANET for years and finally was able to include it in a Kitchen Theatre Company season. She says, "Steven Dietz's play is extraordinary. Even as the play focuses on the lives of Carl and Jody, it also fans out over an entire era, becoming a statement of the human condition in a unique and powerful way. Above all, for me, this play is a theatrical event. Lonely Planet mixes the mundane with the metaphoric as only theater can. I lived through the AIDS crisis and it had a huge impact on my life. Lonely Planet portrays an important time in our history, and it does so with humor and grace. You will fall in love with these characters as much as I have."

Photo by Dave Burbank