News: Acclaimed NY Duo Xhloe & Natasha Present "A Letter To Lyndon B. Johnson or God" at SoHo Playhouse

Photo by Morgan McDowell
Drawing on their own upbringings in military families and being taught that the USA was the greatest country in the world, New York City-based writer/performer company of two Xhloe and Natasha are off-Broadway bound, delving into the idealized American childhood and the boys it left behind. A Letter to Lyndon B. Johnson or God: Whoever Reads This First sees them playing two boy scouts in the 1960s, idolizing their president, soldiers and war. Xhloe and Natasha have become firm favorites of Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the biggest arts festival in the world, and A Letter To Lyndon B. Johnson won them their third consecutive Fringe First, the prestigious award from national newspaper The Scotsman. They have been selected to perform at SoHo Playhouse as part of the International Fringe Encore Series, which showcases some of the best plays presented at Fringe festivals internationally.

A Letter to Lyndon B. Johnson is an absurdist two-hander influenced by the 1960s and the Vietnam War. Two boy scouts directly address the audience, telling stories, playing soldiers, and declaring their admiration for their hero, current president Lyndon B. Johnson. With the Scouts traditionally known as a way of preparing boys for military service, and Lyndon B. Johnson notorious for putting young men, barely 18, on the firing line, Xhloe and Natasha explore children’s innocence and relationship with war using their signature style of clowning, physicality, and fast pace. Fitting with Xhloe and Natasha’s company ethos centered around queerness and gender identity, A Letter To Lyndon B. Johnson reflects on the androgyny of gender traits that society allows boys to have in comparison to when they become men.

Annually, the International Fringe Encore Series provides opportunities to emerging artists who show exceptional talent at each season’s Fringe Festivals both artistically and commercially. In recognition of their excellence, SoHo Playhouse offers these special shows an extended run Off–Broadway in New York City. This extended run gives these worthy shows a platform for future productions and success. Many of the previous productions featured in the series have gone on to extensive Off-Broadway runs and international success.

“We're so excited to finally share this piece with a New York audience, and for the off-Broadway debut of our original work. We've been so happy with the success we've found in the UK, but as New Yorkers ourselves, this city was where we formed so many of our artistic opinions” said co-writers and performers Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland. They continued, “Especially after this recent election, we are really looking forward to what American audiences will find in this show. The conversation surrounding the role the president plays in this country shaped the creation of this piece, so we anticipate the show will continue to change along with it.”

Xhloe and Natasha have been in collaboration for over a decade, creating absurdist physical theatre, clown, and comedy content often centering around themes of queerness and gender identity. They have collaborated with companies such as the Tank, Dixon Place, the SpaceUK, the Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, and Art House Productions INKubator. In recent years, their show A Sleepless Play received a virtual production with Occupy The Stage’s Women’s Theatre Festival, and their show Seven Days To The End of The World received a reading through the Company of Fools Reading Series. They are three-time recipients of the Scotsman Fringe First Award for And Then The Rodeo Burned Down, What If They Ate The Baby?, and A Letter To Lyndon B. Johnson or God: Whoever Reads This First. 

A Letter To Lyndon B. Johnson or God: Whoever Reads This First
Running Time: 50 mins | Suitable for ages 14+
Writers and performers Xhloe Rice (They/She/He) and Natasha Roland (She/They/Them)
Lighting designer Angelo Sagnelli (He/Him)

February 8-22, 2025 at Soho Playhouse, 15 Vandam St, New York, NY 10013

Feb. 16 | 6pm
Feb. 8, 9, 12, 13, 15, 17, 22 | 7pm
Feb. 10, 14, 20, 21 | 9pm

Tickets $40 | www.sohoplayhouse.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: "How To Eat an Orange" Cuts into the Life of an Argentine Artist and Activist

Image
How To Eat an Orange Written by Catherine Filloux Based on the writing of Claudia Bernardi Directed by Elena Araoz Presented by La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club at The Downstairs at La MaMa 66 E 4th St., Manhattan, NYC May 30-June 16, 2024 Paula Pizzi. Photo by Steven Pisano How To Eat an Orange , making its world premiere at La MaMa, does in fact include a real orange as a prop, and its multifarious symbolizations–evoking at different points cultural specificity, family history, matriarchal inheritance, and even a skull–are representative of the play's boundary-blurring, non-linear presentation of memory. The memories in question belong to visual artist, educator, and activist Claudia Bernardi , who lived through several years of her native Argentina's military junta, which held power from 1976 to 1983, before departing her country and eventually settling in the United States. How To Eat an Orange , from Catherine Filloux, a French Algerian American award-winning playwright,...
Read more

Review: The Immersive "American Blues: 5 Short Plays by Tennessee Williams" Takes Audiences on a Marvelously Crafted Journey

Image
American Blues: 5 Short Plays by Tennessee Williams Written by Tennessee Williams Directed by Jim Niesen Presented by the Irondale Ensemble Project at The Space at Irondale 85 South Oxford St., Brooklyn, NYC October 27-November 26, 2023 Shadenia Savid in Moony's Kids Don't Cry . Photo by Natasha Rotondaro In 1948, Tennessee Williams published American Blues , a collection of five one-act plays, and a remarkable new production of this collection by Brooklyn's Irondale shows that these works have lost none of their power to both entertain and challenge audiences in the intervening three-quarters of a century. Comprising plays written in the decade between 1936 and 1946 - Moony's Kids Don't Cry (1936); The Dark Room (1939); The Case of the Crushed Petunias (1941); The Long Stay Cut Short, or, the Unsatisfactory Supper (1946); and Ten Blocks on the Camino Real (1946) - American Blues represents the second part of Irondale's American Century, the first install...
Read more

Review: From Child Pose to Stand(ing) Up: "Yoga with Jillian" and "Penguin in Your Ear" at the Women in Theatre Festival

Image
Yoga with Jillian Written by Lia Romeo Directed by Andrew W. Smith Presented by Project Y Theatre and Richard Jordan Productions in association with The Pleasance June 2-17, 2023 Penguin in Your Ear Written and performed by Eliza Bent Directed by Jess Barbagallo June 10, 2023 Part of the Women in Theatre Festival , presented by Project Y Theatre at A.R.T./New York Theatres Michole Biancosino. Photo courtesy of Project Y Theatre This June, Project Y Theatre Company presents the eighth annual installment of its Women in Theatre Festival (WIT), which showcases new work by women and maintains "more than 50% female representation of all artists involved." This year, the festival includes a lobby installation project, titled In the Betweens , from scenic designer Chen-Wei Liao, through which audience members pass on their way into the theater proper. One first chooses first between "light" and "dark" rooms and then moves into "the gardens" before re...
Read more