The Extremists
Description
Spin or fact? Theater or reality? A biting, original political satire that challenges audiences of any political affiliation, THE EXTREMISTS is a labyrinth of wordplay and mind games in which a television talk-show host and his guest, author of a book about terrorism, get lost in their own doublespeak … or are they really double-agents, subversively reprogramming our sound-byte-saturated minds?
Production Info
Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
Press Quotes
“It’s Samuel Beckett meets Larry King in this new play by CJ Hopkins. When an expert on terrorism appears on a TV talk show, the conversation becomes a perverse satirical rant on the increasing alienation of the individual in the modern world … A dark satire that playfully mocks the essential absurdity of the talking-head culture … taking on big issues like the loss of individualism and the looming apocalypse … smartly written …” —Atlanta Journal Constitution
“The audience never tunes out while watching THE EXTREMISTS … At first we sit back and laugh at the doublespeak as CJ Hopkins’s media satire takes potshots at some easy targets. By the end, we find ourselves squirming as if we’re the ones in the hot seat, mentally justifying our own choices and behaviors … After a stealthy first half, the production confronts the viewers like it’s a merciless Jon Stewart and we’re a hapless Jim Cramer … The play doesn’t just target conservatives, but implies that the entire political process is a corrupt means for national and global dominance.” —Creative Loafing (Atlanta)
“The word ‘insane’ is one of the most frequently heard words on the stage … It describes the evening very well … THE EXTREMISTS begins as harmless media satire, a conversation in which the host and the invited expert toss empty phrases back and forth … Hopkins builds a construct of ideas out of their rhetoric, until everything revolves around one thing: What is the truth for the good guys, and what is it for the bad guys? … What is the reality? … Intellectual theater in the truest sense.” —Der Tagesspiegel (Berlin)
“A gripping satire, which spills into sinister weirdness.” —Die Tageszeitung (Berlin)
Author
CJ HopkinsCJ Hopkins is a playwright, director, and author of miscellaneous other works. His early plays and experimental stage-texts were first produced Off-Off Broadway during the 1990s. Since 2001, his work has been commissioned, produced and has toured internationally at theaters and festivals including Riverside Studios (London), 59E59 Theaters (New York), Belvoir St. Theatre (Sydney), Traverse Theatre and Assembly (Edinburgh), the Du Maurier World Stage Festival (Toronto), the Adelaide Fringe Festival, Brighton Festival, Noorderzon Festival (the Netherlands), among many others. His playwriting awards include the 2002 First of the Scotsman Fringe Firsts in Edinburgh (HORSE COUNTRY), the 2004 Best of the Adelaide Fringe Festival (HORSE COUNTRY) and a 2005 Scotsman Fringe First (SCREWMACHINE/EYECANDY). He was a 1994 Drama League of New York Developing Artist fellow and a 1995 Mabou Mines Resident Artist/Jerome Foundation fellow. His plays (HORSE COUNTRY, SCREWMACHINE/EYECANDY, THE EXTREMISTS) are published by Bloomsbury Publishing (Methuen Drama) and Broadway Play Publishing, Inc. He lives in Berlin, Germany, where he works as a freelance editor, translator and script consultant.
Book Information
| Publisher | BPPI |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 11/1/2010 |
| Pages | 80 |
| ISBN | 9780881454413 |
Special Notes
Originally produced by 7 Stages, English Theatre Berlin and PushPush Theater
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypublishing.com