Barbecue

Photo credit: Heath Hays

By Robert O’Hara

Directed by Damon Kiely

Aug 17, 2017–Sep 30, 2017

A modern American family uses a summer barbecue as a pretext to ambush sister Barbara with an intervention. If you think “all families are crazy” is just a cliché, you’ve not spent time under the influence of the O’Mallerys. An afternoon in the park with these raucous siblings, and you’ll be challenging your own assumptions about family, race, and reality. The Chicago premiere of Barbecue by Obie and Helen Hayes Award winner Robert O’Hara will have you laughing out loud and questioning how it’s true that in America, you sometimes taze the ones you love.

To learn more, download this transcript to read what dramaturg Taylor Barfield, playwright Robert O’Hara, and director Damon Kiely have to say about the play, celebrity, the perils of technology, and America’s obsession with messed-up people.

★★★ “When we’re on the ground with the American family in crisis, loving every messed-up moment without realizing we’re every bit as whacked-out ourselves, the coals of the grill are burning hot.”—Chicago Tribune

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED “Strawdog’s Barbecue scores an 11 on the Honey Boo Boo scale … Robert O’Hara skewers the showbiz of race in this sly satire with a twist.”—Chicago Reader

CRITIC’S PICK! “Strawdog and Kiely have given us a beautiful, rare, and unapologetic blend of responsible theater-making, social commentary, and pure entertainment. Barbecue is not to be missed.”—Performink

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED “Robert O’Hara’s talent for writing outrageous comedy is a gift. He doesn’t tiptoe around the funny; he digs in deep, gets messy and goes right down to the heart of the matter.”—Chicago Theatre Review