NOT the National Theatre presents hilarious satire Wild East at Central Studio, Basingstoke.
First performed at the Royal Court in February last year, it was written by April de Angelis as a take on the corporate world and the stifling of independent thought.
Frank's got the interview. It's his big break. He just has to persuade two formidable women from the corporation and he can swap his dull post-grad existence for luxury in Russia.
But the women have agendas of their own - Frank has a secret past and watching them all, through cameras, is the sinister corporation itself.
The oil-bearing vastness of Siberia is the "wild east" of the title. Post-communist Russia substitutes for California, while the unseen corporation is a merciless god that demands total capitulation, chewing up dissidents and losers.
The characters jostle for predominance, shifting their allegiances in an increasingly desperate attempt to survive.
NOT The National Theatre was founded in 1984 by three National Theatre actors, with the aim of presenting contemporary plays to varied audiences across the UK and beyond.
The productions have always been sufficiently flexible to be performed in both conventional and non-conventional theatre spaces in a repertoire which mixes new plays with revivals of modern classics.
The company has now played more than 300 venues nationally and internationally, and has toured on consecutive days from the Swan in Stratford to Holloway Jail and in consecutive weeks from Brazilia to Bucharest.
It was the first British company to visit Communist Romania and Czechoslovakia, and the first to play in Argentina after the Falklands War.
Most tours now play between 30 and 50 dates throughout Britain and Ireland on the small and middle-scale circuits.
The company has established strong relationships with theatres and audiences across the UK and beyond, which has allowed it to widen the scope and boldness of its programming.
In recent years, NOT The National Theatre has focused on the second productions of new plays that may have had only a limited first run, or the work of a new or established playwright whose work has not been seen on the national circuit.
The company produced the first national tours of, among others, Hysteria, Two, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Not a Game for Boys and My Mother Said I Never Should.
Wild East runs at 7.45pm on Thursday, November 23. Tickets, priced £10 full, £8.50 concessions, £5 children and students, are available from the box office on 01256 418318 or online at www.centralstudio.co.uk
For more information, log on to www.notthenational.com
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