Cast Announced for Online Reading of UNIDENTIFIED HUMAN REMAINS AND THE TRUE NATURE OF LOVE

Full casting has been announced for the live reading via Zoom of UNIDENTIFIED HUMAN REMAINS AND THE TRUE NATURE OF LOVE by Brad Fraser, directed by Jacob Van Hoorn. This provocative political comedy from Canada will be performed Wednesday, July 1 at 7 pm. Van Hoorn's cast will include Rebecca Carver (Evelyn), Emily Cox (Candy), Chip Joyce (Robert), Skyler McNeely (Bernie), Pauline Parkhurst (Benita), Andrew Rhodenbaugh (David), Andrew Schoepke (Kane), and Autumn Vandeven (Jerri), each of whom will perform from their own homes. This is the sixth such live online play reading presented by Pride Films and Plays since COVID-19 restrictions have prevented in-person performances. It will be the company's second reading of the week of June 28, following THE LAST SUNDAY IN JUNE, to be performed on Sunday, June 28 at 7 pm.

UNIDENTIFIED HUMAN REMAINS AND THE TRUE NATURE OF LOVE is a sexually charged thriller that was first presented at the playRites '89 Festival in Calgary, Alberta. While it was immediately controversial for its violence, nudity, frank dialogue, and sexual explicitness, it received critical acclaim and was named one of the 10 best plays of the year by TIME Magazine. Using and subverting elements of various genres, including thriller, situation comedy and grade-B horror film, the piece is written with cynical humor, but is serious in tone. It follows the lives of several sexually frustrated "thirty-somethings" and one teenager who try to learn the meaning of love - during a time in which a serial killer is terrorizing the city.

Fraser's play has been presented around the world. The 1991 off-Broadway production included in its cast the future Academy Award winner Sam Rockwell, alongside Clark Gregg, who would go on to play agent Phil Coulson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies IRONMAN, CAPTAIN MARVEL, and THE AVENGERS. It was adapted for the screen in a 1993 release titled LOVE AND HUMAN REMAINS.

Van Hoorn notes the relevance of this 31-year-old play to today. "The play takes place in 1989 and the threat of a very different virus looms over the characters, with misinformation being spread about who can and can't catch it. Characters say the city feels abandoned to them, and they cope with these feelings of loneliness and isolation in quite different ways: some of them healthy, some of them very toxic and horrifically violent. But despite all of this bleakness, the second half of the play offers hope as it proposes a picture of 'the true meaning of love,' as suggested by the second half of the title.

Ticket price for the reading is $10.00. Tickets are available at www.pridearts.org or by phone at 773-857-0222.

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