Theater Review / FINAL PERFORMANCES FOR HILARIOUS “HURRICANE DIANE” AT THE RED BARN THEATRE

If you haven’t yet caught the Red Barn Theatre’s very funny “Hurricane Diane”, you’re about to run out of time. Pulitzer Prize finalist Madeleine George’s off-beat and hilarious new play will close this Saturday, but tickets are still available for all remaining shows.

“Hurricane Diane” is a reality-bending mash-up of ancient Greek deities and South Jersey cul-de-sac housewives that features a who’s who of Key West women, including Erin McKenna, Caroline Taylor, Susannah Wells, Jessica Miano Kruel, and Lauren Thompson. It is expertly directed by Red Barn artistic director, Joy Hawkins.

The play centers around Dionysus, the Greek God of wine and ecstasy, who shows up as a rabble-rousing lesbian gardener from Vermont named Diane, and she’s chosen four suburban New Jersey housewives – think a sophisticated, socially-conscious version of a “Real Housewives” show and you won’t be far off – to join his efforts at reclaiming the natural beauty of the planet.

Diane has great plans – not the least of which involve indulging her Dionysian proclivities – and she’s going to begin right here, right now.

Will Diane be able to enlist them all? Will this diverse band of suburban women be inspired by the appetites of their divine visitor to unleash their wildness to help the battered planet? Maybe. Maybe not. You’ll have to see.

To say the play is outrageously funny is a given. But it also carries a subtextual message that has profound relevance in this day and age. Called “incisively smart and boisterously funny” by the Boston Globe, “clever and timely” by New York Theater, and “An astonishing new play” by the NY Times, “Hurricane Diane” lives up to its fantastical premise.

Tickets are available at redbarntheatre.com or by calling 305-296-9911. The play is sponsored in part by The Dogwood Foundation, Design Group Key West, and the Monroe County Tourist Development Council.

The Red Barn continues to monitor and adhere to the CDC guidelines concerning Covid protocols for small spaces. Patrons may direct any questions as to the current suggested practices to the box office at 305-296-9911.

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