Luna Stage to Present World Premiere of RIFT OR WHITE LIES by Gabriel Jason Dean

Luna Stage will present the World Premiere of RIFT or White Lies by Gabriel Jason Dean, directed by Ari Laura Kreith,  February 8-March 3, 2024. RIFT plays Fridays at 8:00 p.m, Saturdays at 3:00 p.m and 8:00 p.m., and Sundays at 3:00 p.m., with a special midweek matinee on Thursday, February 15 at 1:00 p.m. Tickets are $40 at lunastage.org/rift, with a limited number of $20 and $10 tickets available as part of Luna’s commitment to ensuring access for all.

Two brothers--one a progressive novelist, the other a convicted murderer and high-ranking member of a white supremacist prison gang–are united through their traumatic childhood. Now adults, these men navigate the edges of their brotherly bond. Are they truly so different? Is it possible to love someone whose beliefs you hate? RIFT is a story of estrangement, ideological divide, and the fight to change one another.

A work of fiction, RIFT or White Lies is inspired by playwright Dean’s relationship with his brother, a currently-incarcerated high-level member of the alt-right. The two had been estranged since Dean’s discovery of his brother’s affiliation in 2010. In creating the piece, Dean reconnected with his brother to explore the roots of their ideological differences and try to find common ground.

The play is the live culmination of a two-part project commissioned by Luna. Part 1, #RIFT: A Play Over Text Message, an eight-week interactive virtual experience blending text message conversations, audio files, and images, was delivered to subscribers’’ cell phones across the country during the height of the pandemic. The project was awarded grants from the Venturous Theatre Foundation’s Plays For Now program and the New Jersey Theatre Alliance STAGES Festival, and was featured as part of the National Day of Racial Healing.

This is Dean’s second in-person production at Luna Stage. His play Heartland, also directed by Kreith, explored familial estrangement across geographic and cultural boundaries, and was selected as one of NJArts Top 12 NJ Theater productions of 2019.