The UK Premiere of There or Here, from the producers of the 2013 hit Yellow Face (Park Theatre/National Theatre transfer), will open the PARK90 2018 season. With a cast that includes Rakhee Thakrar (EastEnders), Jennifer Maisel’s dramatic comedy follows the journey of an inter-racial American couple who return to the country of his roots to outsource their pregnancy.
When illness prevents Robyn and Ajay from having a child of their own, they return to India – the country of Ajay’s birth – to outsource their pregnancy to a local woman. As they come together to face this next step in their lives, they are unable to be the comfort the other needs. Through sharp writing and witty observation.
There or Here explores what happens when couples forego face-to-face communication in favour of the virtual. Solace is found through strangers on phone sex lines, in IT call centres and at drive-thrus. Age and location no longer matter as the world moves online, and life becomes outsourced.
The cast includes Rakhee Thakrar, Chris Nayak, Ursula Mohan, Manish Gandhi and Lucy Fenton.
There or Here was a 2009 PEN West Literary Award finalist. It was also a finalist at the Sundance Theatre Lab (2007) and the O’Neill Theatre Conference (2008). It received its world premiere at the 14th Street Theater in New York on 9 September 2008.
It will play The Park Theatre 23rd January – 17th February 2018.
