THE NETHERMOUTH LIBERATION To Premiere At 2018 KC Fringe Festival

THE NETHERMOUTH LIBERATION: A LOVE STORY, written by Walter Winch and directed by Diane Bulan, is a two-person play set in the late 21st century. A man and a woman, held in an isolated compound for political prisoners, are scheduled to be executed in the morning.

In this play, democratic institutions have collapsed in the twenty-first century and large global corporations now control the state. Humans have all become mere commodities in our new world, where environmental degradation is well underway. Louie and Bunny were once part of the Resistance but were captured and determined to be "unredeemable," therefore unemployable.

Playwright Walter Winch is a former Peace Corps director in the Caribbean and has published both fiction and non-fiction. He was a Midwest Voices columnist and had an environmental blog with the Kansas City Star. According to the playwright, the idea for this play comes from the growing acceptance and even encouragement of authoritarianism across the globe. But unlike the past, the existential threat of climate change and increasing population worldwide really does provide the "perfect storm" for all life on Earth.

The Nethermouth Liberation: A Love Story will be part of the Kansas City ?Fringe Festival, which runs July 19-29. This original stage play features Michael Bunn as Louie and Denise Saylor as Bunny. It will be performed at Musical Theatre Heritage Stage 2, on the third floor of the Crown Center Shops, 2450 Grand Blvd. Performances will be July 21 at 6:30pm, July 22 at 2:00pm, July 24 at 8:00pm, July 27 at 6:30pm, and July 28 at 5:00pm. Tickets are $10 with the purchase of a $5 Fringe button.

For more information, visit facebook.com/PapplebackProductions or KCFringe.org.