Arizona Premier Of Comedy RIPCORD Announced At Fountain Hills Theater

The new comedy by David Lindsay-Abaire receives its Arizona Premiere at The Fountain Hills Theater.

A sunny room on an upper floor is prime real estate in the Bristol Place Senior Living Facility, so when the cantankerous Abby is forced to share her quarters with new-arrival Marilyn, she has no choice but to get rid of the infuriatingly chipper woman by any means necessary. A seemingly harmless bet between the old women quickly escalates into a dangerous game of one-upmanship that reveals not just the tenacity of these worthy opponents, but also deeper truths that each would rather remain hidden.

Abby has always had a quiet room to herself at the Bristol Place Senior Living Facility in David Lindsay-Abaire's new play Ripcord. If a new roommate was assigned to the second bed, Abby - cantankerous and private - quickly got them out. That is until enthusiastic, optimistic Marilyn arrives. Abby pleads with an orderly, "If I have to have someone in here, why can't it be someone quiet? What about that woman without the voice box? She seems nice." But Abby finds that if she is going to get Marilyn out, she'll have to do it herself, and the high-stakes bet that the two women make leads quickly to an all-out war of comic proportions.

Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire began the play as a challenge to himself. Audiences know him best for his Southie-set comic drama Good People and his Pulitzer Prize-winning Rabbit Hole - but before those more serious plays, Lindsay-Abaire was known for writing absurdist comedies. His landmark 1999 hit Fuddy Meers takes the audience on a wild ride through one day in the life of an amnesiac abducted by a mysterious stranger. Lindsay-Abaire wrote a string of hits including Wonder of the World and Kimberly Akimbo.

"I started to wonder if I can combine that spirit of those old comedic plays with, hopefully, the craft that I've garnered over the years," Lindsay-Abaire says. "Once the play started to take shape, I realized that I was also writing something that was harkening back to some of the first plays that I had seen and loved as a kid: I'm Not Rappaport, Lettice and Lovage, or The Gin Game, comedies about two characters of a certain age really going at it with each other. Those plays are really funny, but what I loved about them was that they were incredibly human. They had big throbbing hearts in the middle of them."

Ripcord stars the Grande Dames of Valley Theater, Noel Irick and Barbara McBain and features Bill Bennett, Deborah Ostreicher, Benjermin Tietz and Richard Wells.

Ripcord is produced by Patty Torrilhon and directed by Wanda McHatton. Ripcord is presented through Special Arrangement with Dramatists Play Service

Ripcord will play Mar. 18 - April 3, 2022. Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30PM and Sundays at 2PM. Individual tickets are $35.00 for Adults and $18.00 for Youth 17 and under. Seniors receive a $5.00 discount on all Thursday performances. Group rate discounts are available. Veteran and Active Duty discounts.

All performances are at Fountain Hills Theater on its Mainstage at 11445 N. Saguaro Blvd. (The Corner of Saguaro and Rand). Tickets are available through the Theater Box Office at (480) 837-9661 x3 or by visiting fhtaz.org.