Overview
The O’Mallery’s have gathered in their local park to share some barbecue and straight talk with their sister Barbara, whose spiral of drugs and recklessness has forced her siblings to stage an open-air intervention. But the event becomes raucous and unpredictable as familial stereotypes collide with hard realities, and racial politics slam up against the stories we tell—and maybe even believe—about who we were and who we’ve become.
Casting & Production
Casting:
JAMES T — white male 40/50ish
LILLIE ANNE — white female 50/60ish
BARBARA/ZIPPITY BOOM — white female 30/40ish
MARIE — white female 40/50ish
ADLEAN — white female 40/50ish
JAMES T — black male
LILLIE ANNE — black female
BARBARA – black female
MARIE — black female
ADLEAN – black female
Production Notes:
It is very important that there be No Attempt to make either cast look (physically) like the other, besides wearing the same Costume.
Setting
Place
Middle America.
Setting
A pavilion, surrounded by a park.
Time
Now (after and before)
Reviews
“Robert O’Hara’s new play, Barbecue… is my idea of an American classic, or the kind of classic we need. Although its fecund imagination seems unlimited, the work wouldn’t exist if it didn’t have the junk of our times to feed on—and spit out.”
—Hilton Als, The New Yorker
“A sizable talent, not to mention another important asset for a playwright who wants to make his mark by shaking up the world, one audience at a time: fearlessness.”
—Christopher Isherwood, New York Times
Media
