Under the brilliant and rigorous direction of Oliver Butler, the Debate Society certainly doesn’t disappoint in this bizarre but deeply winning homage to the drive-in cinema of yore.

The New Yorker

A decaying drive-in comes to life with stories of lighthouses, naughty little girls and places you imagine remembering. So sit back, relax, refrain from loud talking and rough-housing, turn off your headlights, enjoy some tasty popcorn, put litter in its place, keep an eye on your children, think about how happy we could be, and remember that this country is full of dark, dark places along dark, dark roadways where dark, dark things can happen.

The Debate Society’s fourth full-length play transforms the performance space into their own version of a drive-in theater to present an intimate and absurd perspective of classic Americana. The Brooklyn based play-makers conjure a road trip epic wherein “The lives, desires, and memories of various passengers take a number of sharp and darkly comic turns over the course of one night, dissolving into three studies of bittersweet disenchantment.” (The New Yorker)

Joining co-writers Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen onstage is actor Michael Cyril Creighton and acclaimed NY actress, Drama Desk and two-time Obie Award winner and Emmy nominee Pamela Payton-Wright . . . who is also the mother of Cape Disappointment director Oliver Butler.

Cape Disappointment was commissioned by Performance Space 122 and premiered there in November, 2008.

PRESS

Filled with more funny and spellbinding moments than just about any other production on or off Broadway.

John Del Signore, The Gothamist

Cape Disappointment is a wonderful gift of a show. It is haunting, gentle, elliptical, poetic, humorous, bittersweet, occasionally startling and intense but always true.

-Andy Horwitz, Culturebot

Lush stagecraft and atmospheric bliss… A singular experience of high style and excellent craftsmanship. The best play by The Debate Society yet.

-Mitch Montgomery, Offoffonline

Four stars. Critic’s pick.

-David Cote(Theater Editor), Time Out New York

A bizarre and thrilling new play.

-Show Business Weekly

Hilarious and horrifying.

-New York Press

TOUR

For information on booking The Debate Society please email info@thedebatesociety.org.

CREDITS

Directed and developed by Oliver Butler
Written by Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen
Starring Hannah Bos, Paul Thureen, Michael Cyril Creighton and Pamela Payton-Wright

Production Creative Team
Lighting Design - Mike Riggs
Sound Design - Nathan Leigh
Costume Design - Sydney Maresca
Scenic Design - Karl Allen
Animation - Tony Candelaria and Stef Choi
Voice Overs - Hal Douglas and Brian Grosz

Cape Disappointment was developed with the support of chashama, the CUNY Prelude Festival, Dixon Place and The Fusebox Festival and made possible in part by grants from The Puffin Foundation, The Mancini Foundation, The Greenwall Foundation and public funds from the Fund for Creative Communities, supported by the New York Stage Council on the Arts and administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.