Bust
CL RECOMMENDS
Thu., Feb. 13 – Sun., Mar. 16
CRITIC’S PICK: Bust, Alliance Theatre - Premiering on the Alliance’s Coca-Cola Stage, Zora Howard’s new play is said to be an exploration of conflict amid the impacts of systemic racism. “Growing up, my mother, my aunties, or whomever, would come home with whatever mess they dealt with throughout their day, and they would talk about it,” Howards recalls. “The way they told their stories – sparing no ugly detail and still, somehow, cracking jokes throughout; it was a healing practice I learned early on.”
‘Bust’ is directed by Tony and Pulitzer nominee Lileana Blain-Cruz. “There’s this really amazing, thrilling, complicated emotional journey that happens at the center of this play, and I hope audiences are on the ride to encounter something they had never considered before,” she says. Her production contains strobe lighting, explicit and derogatory language, and addresses police brutality and systemic racism. - Kevin C. Madigan
From the venue:
By Zora Howard
Directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz
A Co-Production with Goodman Theatre
BUST is produced in association with Sonia Friedman Productions, Khaliah Neal and Thomas Swayne
It’s not only hell that breaks loose in this ground-breaking, form-defying, laugh-out-loud new drama from Pulitzer-Prize finalist playwright Zora Howard. Retta and Reggie are enjoying their usual evening on the porch when a longtime neighbor is pulled over by the police just before turning into his driveway. Everything goes as expected — until the unexpected happens. Humor, spectacle, and surrealism converge in this gripping interrogation of what it costs to be Black and free. Lileana Blain-Cruz, a “master of curating chaos” (The New York Times), directs.
Bust | 02/15/2025 7:30 PM