LOVE, BOMBS, & APPLES Makes U.S. Debut After Two Sold-out Runs In London!

Golden Thread Productions, the first American theatre company devoted to the Middle East, in association with U.K.'s Turtle Key Arts, presents the U.S. premiere of Golden Thread Resident Artist Hassan Abdulrazzak's tour-de-force comedy Love, Bombs & Apples, which played to sold-out houses in London over two extended runs and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Described as a "quartet of monologues with a profound ability to find bubbling humor in the most over-trodden tragedies" by The Stage, the production is directed by Rosamunde Hutt and features Asif Khan. Love, Bombs, and Apples plays April 19-May 6, 2018 at Potrero Stage (1695 18th Street, San Francisco). For tickets ($15-$38) and more information on the production, please visit goldenthread.org. Tickets for the opening night on Saturday, April 21, at 8pm are $75, and include a special artist reception.

In Love, Bombs & Apples, a Palestinian actor learns there's more to English girls than pure sex appeal. A Pakistani-born terror suspect figures out what's wrong with his first novel. A British youth suspects all is not what it seems with his object of desire. A New Yorker asks his girlfriend for a sexual favor at the worst possible time. Love, Bombs & Apples is the comic tale of four men, each from different parts of the globe, all experiencing a moment of revelation. London Theatre hailed the production, which delves into a vulnerable male perspective in this moment of crisis of masculinity, as "a truly exceptional performance. ... a script that deals in the nitty-gritties of the ordinary with searingly satirical candor and idiosyncratic quirks and foibles of each brilliantly observed character."

"Arab theatre artists in the UK have accomplished so much in the past ten years," says Golden Thread Founding Artistic Director Torange Yeghiazarian. "And Hassan is one of the most influential Middle Eastern voices writing in English today. The humorous and self-deprecating manner in which he challenges traditional perceptions of masculinity in Love, Bombs & Apples adds new and unexamined layers to current conversations about the crisis of masculinity, as well as #MeToo." Golden Thread is proud to be the American home for Abdulrazzak's work, having premiered his short play Lost Kingdom about Saddam Hussein's final days in prison at ReOrient 2015 Festival and presented his full-length Baghdad Wedding in the company's New Threads staged reading series. This will be Abdulrazzak's first full-length production in the U.S. and he will be in San Francisco for the opening.

The process for Love, Bombs & Apples began in 2009 when Abdulrazzak was asked to write a monologue for Pakistani-British actor Asif Khan's graduation showcase at RADA. The play started to take its full-length shape in 2014 when Khan reconnected with Abdulrazzak and started building the piece with three additional monologues that would be in communication with each other. The play was developed under the direction of Rosamunde Hutt at the Arcola Theatre's PlayWROUGHT Festival in 2015 and performed at Arcola as part of the Shubbak Festival. In 2016, it received a full run at the Arcola Theatre, and has since toured the U.K., including a celebrated run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Creative team for Love, Bombs & Apples includes Mila Sanders (scenic and costume design), James Hesford (sound design), Cassie Barnes (lighting technician), James Ard (sound technician), Grisel Torres (stage manager). Golden Thread thanks Zellerbach Family Foundation for their support of this premiere. Turtle Key Arts would like to acknowledge the support of AIK Productions, Arts Council England, The Iraqi Cultural Centre, The Richard Carne Trust, Shubbak Festival, and Arcola Theatre. Golden Thread is a resident company of Potrero Stage, operated by PlayGround. This production is made possible in part through the Potrero Stage Presenting Program.