Cast: Kavi Ladnier and Sendhil Ramamurthy
Creative team:
Set: Anshuman Bhatia // Costume: Sarita Fellows
Lights: Barbara Samuels // Sound: Joanna Lynne Staub
Production Stage Manager: Emely Zepeda
Intimacy director: Judi Lewis Ockler
Assistant director: Mehr Kaur
Press: Vivacity
Production stills: Joan Marcus
February-March 2019, WP Theater
Co-produced by WP Theater
Hatefuck
by 2019 Richard Rodgers Award-winning playwright
Rehana Lew Mirza
directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt
Passions ignite when Layla, an intense literature professor, accuses Imran, a brashly iconoclastic novelist, of trading in anti-Muslim stereotypes. But as their attraction grows into something more, they discover that good sex doesn’t always make good bedfellows.
Conflicting cultural identities collide in this thornily clever antidote to a “meet-cute” romance.
Hatef**k is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
Press
““SMART, MOUTHY and SEXY!
Kavi Ladnier and Sendhil Ramamurthy are DRIPPING WITH CHARISMA. Just beneath the couple’s pheromone-spiked banter lurks a feeling discussion about representation and identity.” ”
““Angry sex done right! Passions are heightened with every clever turn-of-phrase until the two head for the bedroom to work off the steam.” “Dialogue ripples with energy sprinkled with humor and an occasional gut punch. Using her two beautifully defined creations, Mirza can go deep as well as broad, coming to conclusions that are enlightening as well as troubling.” ”
““COMPLEX and PROVOCATIVE. FUN TO WATCH!
Kavi Ladnier and Sendhil Ramamurthy trade barbs and come-ons at a breakneck pace, with director Adrienne Campbell-Holt taking a cue from classic Hollywood screwball comedy—though we never saw as much of Cary Grant’s unclothed body as we do of Ramamurthy’s well-trained physique.””
““The electric spark between Layla and Imran is fueled equally by attraction and revulsion, creating a MAGNETIC TENSION THAT DRAWS US IN. Ladnier and Ramamurthy wield Mirza’s sharp writing LIKE TWO OLYMPIC FENCERS BRANDISHING THEIR FOILS.””
““TAUT AND TART. A SMARTLY, and WITTILY written play - which takes unexpected turns.” ”
““Every South Asian should see this play.””