Port Out, Starboard Home September 7, 2012

Sept 7, 8, 10, 13-15, 19-22, 8pm; Sept 23, 2pm

How far would you go to wake up?

Climb aboard the luxury cruise ship Crown of the Seas, and join an eclectic group of seekers as they strive for enlightenment. Amidst the sensual decadence of bars, discos, and gluttonous buffets, they un-tether themselves from the baggage of everyday life and become entangled in a strange, disturbing ritual.

FoolsFURY, "one of the brightest stars of the San Francisco experimental theater scene" (SF Arts Monthly), returns to the stage with its most ambitious project to date, the world premiere of "Port Out, Starboard Home", a black comedy developed in collaboration with playwright Sheila Callaghan and directed by foolsFURY Artistic Director Ben Yalom. Co-produced by Z Space, co-presented by La Mama, and developed in collaboration with Playwrights Foundation and New Dramatists.

Callaghan's plays have been called "sophisticated" and "gutsy", "raunchy" and "literate"; her audiences have come to expect a mix of social commentary and comedy. POSH, a script she developed for, and with, foolsFURY, an ensemble specializing in avant-garde, physical theater, delivers on this count. The play weaves together dialogue and dance to explore the temporary space of a luxury cruise vacation which is, it turns out, an ideal setting for confronting our most primal fears and selves. POSH offers a surreal view of a pampered society accustomed to purchasing pina coladas and spiritual bliss with the same swipe of the credit card.

"The process of developing POSH has been a remarkable and unusual collaboration between playwright and ensemble," says Yalom. "From taking a three-day cruise to Mexico where we interviewed both guests and crew members - and became very familiar with the Mai Tais - to a bicoastal series of workshops, POSH has evolved as something that only Sheila could have written, that is also a perfect fit for foolsFURY's highly physical aesthetic."

Official Website: http://www.zspace.org/1213/POSH.htm