THEATRE + COMEDY

The Country Playhouse (voted through Houston Community Newspapers as Best Community Theatre of 2010) Black Box Productions present Below the Belt by Richard Dresser, with Trevor B. Cone directing. The show will run from March 23 to April 7, 2012.

Set in a mysterious, undisclosed location in some fictional country Below the Belt is a formidable piece of work by Richard Dresser that could be described as “black comedy”.

Three men work in an industrial compound: Hanrahan and Dobbitt check the products and Merkin heads the department. They don’t produce anything. They live in a world dominated by corporate bureaucracy and none of them is sure that he likes it. This world has dehumanized them: they don’t even love their wives as they once did. Ultimately no matter what situation these three are in, the bureaucracy in which they work and live is victorious. They are caught in the system.

“Witty, dark, satirical and darn funny.” User review, Goodreads

"…. a mean, keen comedy about a snarling trio of corporate number-crunchers going for the groin." Star-Ledger

"... a brisk and silly industrial-age comedy that exults in every cliché." NY Times

"Below the Belt is many things, and all of them good!" New York Magazine critic John Simon

Pictured below: (l to r) Todd Thigpen (Dobbitt), John Stevens (Hanrahan) & Kurt Bauer (Merkin). Copyright, Jeff Howie, 2012.