Hope: Perth play bound for New York Fringe and South African Arts Festival

In 2007, The Blue Room Theatre in Perth presented the premiere production of local play Hope is the saddest. After several return seasons and Australian tours, this Award Winning show will be touring overseas this year with performances scheduled for the The New York International Fringe Festival and the National Arts Festival in South Africa.

Local writer, director and performer Jeffrey Jay Fowler is over the moon that the show has been selected to appear at two of the world’s most competitive international festivals.

“The original Blue Room Theatre production in 2007 was a hit, gaining wonderful reviews and audience response”, Fowler said.

The production was toured to Brisbane’s Under The Radar festival in 2008 with one original cast member continuing with the project, and after the festival, the project was put ‘on hold’ for a while.

In 2011, Fowler was invited by The Blue Room Theatre to remount the production for their Summer Nights program in association with the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts as part of last year’s Fringe World.

“We all talked about the fact there wouldn’t be money in it, just the chance to give audiences the chance to see the work that we loved so much”, Fowler explained.

The show was a success and through the partnership between The Blue Room Theatre and the New York International Fringe Festival, was chosen to feature in the highly-competitive American festival later this year.

“We were also spotted by Tony Lankester from the National Arts Festival, South Africa. Before Summer Nights had finished he offered to pick the show up,” Fowler said.

“So a show that had to be shelved for a while for lack of opportunity is suddenly back and doing better than ever – which is strangely fitting for a play about the long term effects of hope.”

Hope is the saddest will appear at the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, South Africa, from 28 June – 3 July 2012, originally supported by The Blue Room Theatre. 

It will appear at the 16th New York International Fringe Festival in August 2012, dates TBC, presented by The Blue Room Theatre.