For Immediate Release: September 28, 2006
Media Contact: Bryan S. Clark, Theatre Exile, 215.922.4462

RED LIGHT WINTER follows the story of Matt, an introspective writer who is falling deeper into his self-created melancholy. To save him from his own destructive tendencies, Matt’s best friend, Davis, books a trip to Amsterdam to sample the Red Light District’s finest. When Davis brings the beautiful, but sad Christina, to cheer Matt up with her professional sexual expertise, the three fall into an irrational and irresolvable love triangle. Throughout a single night spent in a squalid hostel room, the three get high, talk literature and spin a web of deceit, about who they are, what they want and why they are there. Erotic fixation takes hold, and a deep loneliness binds the three Gen X-ers together deep enough for them to chase each other across the ocean. Drugs, disillusionment and deception may bar them from true companionship, but when you have nothing, any fantasy will do. The New York Times called RED LIGHT WINTER a “frank, graphic story of erotic fixation and the havoc it can wreak on sensitive souls”

RED LIGHT WINTER contains adult language, nudity, and strong sexual situations and is recommended for mature audiences.

Adam Rapp is a playwright as well as a novelist. His work has been produced and developed by the New York Theatre Workshop, the Steppenwolf Theater Company, New York City's Public Theatre, and The Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. RED LIGHT WINTER represents Rapp’s most recent success as an up and coming writer. As an advocate for theatre as a tool for education Rapp was once quoted as saying, “How about $15 theatre tickets across the board for kids under 25? Or anyone under 30 pays half their age?” On Monday November 6th, Theatre Exile intends to do just that.

Artistic Director, Joe Canuso, will direct Theatre Exile’s season opener. As founder of Theater Exile, Canuso has directed the critically acclaimed productions of THE PHIILY FAN, Valparaiso, BELMONT AVENUE SOCIAL CLUB and most recently the smash hit of last season, KILLER JOE, which earned Theatre Exile seven Barrymore nominations (the most amount for a non-musical), including Outstanding Overall Production and Outstanding Direction of a Play.

Heading up a cast of Philadelphia’s most esteemed actors is Exile’s own Associate Artistic Director, Matt Pfeiffer, as the melancholy Matt. Pfeiffer’s has performed previously in Exile’s BURKIE, and directed last season’s ROUNDING THIRD. Having also performed with InterAct, Inis Nua and the Walnut Theater, Pfeiffer has also earned a Barrymore nomination for Outstanding Direction of a Play for his work with THE FOOCY at the Lantern Theatre last season.

Ian Merrill Peakes returns to Exile as the charismatic Davis, after performing in Exile’s workshop production of The DrEyfus Affair in 2003. Two-time Barrymore Award winner Peakes has performed in the critically acclaimed TWO GENTLEMAN OF VERONA at the Folger Theater in Washington DC is a long time favorite of the Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival and the Arden Theatre Co, for whom he is currently performing in A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY. Ian was also the recipient of prestigious F. Otto Haas Award for emerging artist.

New to Exile is Charlotte Ford who is playing the mysterious Christina. Ford recently completed her MFA at the London

International School for Performing Arts, a Lecoq-based, collaborative physical theatre program. Ford most recently performed her one-woman show DOG ART for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, under the direction of Exile’s Canuso. In years previous at the Festival, she made appearances with New Paradise Laboratories, Thaddeus Phillips, Geoff Sobelle, and Big House Plays.

Theatre Exile is a nonprofit theater company dedicated to enhancing the cultural experiences of all Philadelphians through the staging of works that engage the imagination. We produce risky and challenging plays that contain a sense of true Philadelphia "grit and passion". We are constantly striving to reach out to new theater audiences throughout the community by presenting both new works as well as established plays that are often reinterpreted in original ways and/or held in unique site specific locations.

We believe in freedom of expression; formulated through innovation, exploration and provocation. At the same time, we provide a safe and creative environment in which local artists can grow and experiment and ultimately, find their own voice.

For tickets, call 215-922-4462 or on the web at www.theatreexile.org.

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