Credit: David Mandel
PURE Theatre will open its 24th season with the world premiere of Church Wars, a new comedy by Fred Thompson directed by PURE co-founder and Artistic Director Sharon Graci. The production runs Aug. 28 through Sept. 19 at the Cannon Street Arts Center, with a Pay What You Will preview on Aug. 27.
Charleston audiences will remember Thompson as the playwright behind PURE's popular Atwater, which found notorious South Carolina political operative Lee Atwater at the gates of heaven, furiously lobbying Saint Peter to let him in. In Church Wars, Thompson turns that same comic, sardonic eye toward another institution built on faith, fellowship, ambition and the deeply held conviction that somebody else is doing it wrong.
The church is in financial trouble. The solution? A cookbook.
Not just any cookbook. This one will be filled with cherished family recipes, lovingly collected and sold to an eager public. And if the committee's planned first printing of 100,000 copies seems overly optimistic, well, that is exactly the kind of negativity the church does not need right now.
Everyone is happy to share a treasured family recipe until someone suggests changing it or leaving it out. Before long, managing the cookbook creates far more trouble than it was meant to solve.
Church Wars unfolds as a live film-within-a-play mockumentary, blending onstage action with documentary-style video footage that catches the characters saying more than they intended and reacting before they can edit themselves.
“Fred has an extraordinary ability to expose the absurdity in people without ever losing sight of their humanity,” Graci said. “These characters are completely certain they are acting in the best interest of the church. Once the cameras start rolling, things go perfectly, gloriously off the rails.”
The production features PURE Theatre Core Ensemble members Camille Lowman, Emily Wilhoit, R.W. Smith, Anna Lin and Michael Smallwood, joined by Julian Gordon, Ngaa Magombedze, Edie Allen, Tara Holwenger, Samantha Smith and Mason Monti.
“PURE's audience is amazing,” Graci said. “For 24 seasons, they have actively participated in the generative nature of professional theater by showing up for new work and helping us bring new plays fully to life. Church Wars is our third world premiere in a row, following The Ocean We Swim In and Red Shirts, and it could not be more different from either of them. Fred has filled this church with characters who feel unmistakably Southern, from their fierce loyalties to the grudges tucked beneath all that fellowship. We know them, we love them and, if we're honest, most of us know exactly where we'd be sitting at that committee table.”
Tickets for Church Wars range from Pay What You Will to $53. Pay What You Will performances will be held Aug. 27 and Sept. 2, with Pay What You Will tickets available online one week before each performance. Student tickets are available for $12 for every performance.
Tickets are available now at puretheatre.org.
For more information about Church Wars, visit puretheatre.org or call the box office at 843-723-4444, Tuesday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.