The 2024 season of the iconic Public Theater is now here! There’s three new flagship shows by playwrights Itamar Moses, Suzan Lori-Parks, and Ife Oljuobi helming the legendary NoHo venue for the spring season. Read on to discover more about these fantastic new shows.
Running Now – The Ally by Itamar Moses: Tony Award-winning playwright Itamar Moses (The Band’s Visit) returns to The Public with the world premiere of THE ALLY, a fierce drama that gives voice to some of the most contentious and important questions of our time.
When college professor Asaf (Josh Radnor) is asked by a student to sign a social justice manifesto, what seems at first like a simple choice instead embroils him in an increasingly complex web of conflicting agendas that challenge his allegiances as a progressive, a husband, an artist, an academic, an American, an atheist, and a Jew. With tensions at an all-time high, Asaf is forced to confront the age-old question: “If I am only for myself, what am I?”
Directed by Drama Desk Award winner Lila Neugebauer (The Wolves), THE ALLY is a passionate, provocative, and unflinching new play about the vanishing line between the personal and the political.
Starting March 28th – Sally and Tom by Suzan Lori-Parks: Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, the author of last season’s The Harder They Come, returns to her artistic home with an edgy dramedy that celebrates the craft of theater while taking a hard look at history. The off-off-off-Broadway theater troupe Good Company is putting on a play about Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. Writer Luce is cast as Sally; her romantic partner, and the play’s director, Mike, is cast as Tom—really, people, what could possibly go wrong? In association with Minneapolis’s acclaimed Guthrie Theater,this funny, ferocious new work is about art, politics, and the contradictions that make all of us. Directed by Steve H. Broadnax III, SALLY & TOM is an unmissable New York premiere from one of our finest and most daring playwrights.
In April – Jordans by Ife Oljuobi: A bitingly funny, wildly imaginative new play by The Public’s Emerging Writers Group alumnus Ife Olujobi, JORDANS is a piercing exploration of assimilation, racial capitalism, success, and survival. At an overwhelmingly white workplace where appearance is everything, a long-suffering receptionist finds herself in personal, professional, and psychic jeopardy when her ruthless boss hires a hip new employee in an effort to improve the company’s image and “culture.” Suddenly, the two young, Black social climbers are forced together and torn apart by their race, ambition, and otherworldly circumstance. JORDANS is a story of identity mistaken, power subverted, and rage unleashed. Don’t miss this bold new play directed by Obie Award winner Whitney White about the true cost of “diversity” in the workplace.
