TREYA'S LAST DANCE Returns to LA from Award-Winning Actress/Playwright Shyam Bhatt

Bolshy, whip-smart and with backchat to spare, Treya's living it up in London! Turns out it takes more than words to heal some wounds. Funny, messy, beautiful . . . it's life as we know it, on stage.

Raucously funny and heartbreakingly tender, Treya's Last Dance is a modern-day exploration of grief, fractured pasts and hopeful futures.

Award-winning Actress/Playwright Shyam Bhatt returns with her critically acclaimed one-act, one-person play. At heart, it's a bittersweet story about the universal themes of grief, identity and sexuality, taken on with humor and poignancy.

Outlandish Cat Productions presents Treya's Last Dance, written and performed by Bhatt and directed by Poonam Basu, opening at the Hudson Guild Theatre on September 18 and continuing on Wednesday evenings through October 23.

Treya's clumsy quest to find a 'life-partner' takes the audience on a journey through the universal struggle to preserve cultural identity within the midst of change. Addressing hard-hitting, current issues: grief, brown girl female sexuality, cultural struggles and discrimination head-on, Treya's Last Dance is a unique take on modern life.

"I wanted to explore grief from a humorous perspective, showing a complex, flawed, female protagonist living through a horrendous moment in life. Treya's Last Dance ended up writing itself. Reading it now, Treya is far more real than I could ever have written her on purpose. Like everyone, she's multi-sided and conflicted. Through her eyes, we see the parts of life that have had the most impact. Treya's grief, loss, humor and love of life reverberate through, and she speaks, subtly, for a generation of young brown women who weren't supposed to be having sex, but who were, delightfully and not so delightfully!" said Shyam. "Meanwhile, themes of discrimination, both racial and sexual, flow alongside Treya's journey to move forward and find the strength to deal with the recent tragedy."

The creative team for Treya's Last Dance includes music composed by Archita Kumar, lighting and sound by Steve Pope, voiceovers/vocals by Arun Kamath, and the production assistant is Jana Dimitrievska.

Treya's Last Dance runs Wednesdays at 8 p.m., September 18 through October 23. Tickets are $30 in advance; $35 at the door; $25 students/seniors (with ID); and $20 military (with ID). Hudson Guild Theatre is located at 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, 90038. Tickets are available in advance through On Stage 411 at https://www.onstage411.com or (323) 965-9996.

Photo credit: Abs Parthasarathy