Comedy 'Mad Gravity' to premiere at BPP theater

Bloomington Playwrights Project will premiere “Mad Gravity” tonight, a comedy that explores how an asteroid heading toward earth could unravel the fabric of society.
Performances will take place at 7:30 p.m. April 4-5, 10-12 and 17-19 at the Bloomington Playwrights Project theater.

Tickets are $20 for regular admission and $17 for students and seniors, and they can be purchased at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater Box Office or online at bctboxoffice.com.

Although the show is already sold out for its opening weekend, tickets are available for the remaining dates.

“Mad Gravity” was the winner of the Reva Shiner Comedy Award, selected by the BPP’s artistic director Chad Rabinovitz.

“Every year, we have two opening calls and contests for play ideas to be submitted for us to adapt,” said Jessica Reed, managing director for BPP. “We had received over 1,000 submissions all over the world just full of comedy play scripts, and ‘Mad Gravity’ was picked as winner for the funniest playwright.”

“Mad Gravity” is a situational comedy that centers on two couples’ reaction to an announcement that an asteroid might hit Earth.

The audience is part of the show, as the actors in the play communicate with them without breaking the fourth wall, or the separation of reality and world in which the play is set.

The production will star actors Mary Carol Reardon, Alan Craig, Jeff Stone, Darrell Ann Stone and Lauren Sagendorph.

The show was directed by Dina Epshteyn, a play director from New York, who previously worked on the productions “Still the River Runs” in 2011 and “Three Views of the Same Object” in 2012 for the BPP.

Since the play is new and has not yet been shown in Bloomington, Epshteyn said, she was constantly in contact with the writer of the play, William Missouri Downs to obtain changes and recommendations.

She said it was beneficial for the production that they were able to bring Downs to the set and ask for his critique.

“‘Mad Gravity’ is a really funny play but has deep and interesting things to say,” Epshteyn said. “It is not something you would normally see in films or plays these days, and I will just leave it at that.”

This was a different kind of project for Epshteyn to take on, but she said she was very pleased with the final product.

“The show was a challenge for sure, but very fun to direct,” Epshteyn said. “Audience members should be in a very open and flexible mindset when seeing it.”