Although he was born in Los Angeles, playwright Jon Robin Baitz grew up abroad. His father's job took the family to Brazil and South Africa and then Baitz spent time on his own in England, Holland, and Israel before finally settling down in New York. All of this traveling gave Baitz an unusual perspective—that of an 'outsider' looking in—and a maturity far beyond his years. As a result, the 34-year-old writer had quickly become an established voice in the American theater. His acclaimed plays share an emotional honesty, an uncompromising moral sensibility, and a love of language. That's why we were so happy to present Baitz's A FAIR COUNTRY, a gripping story about, in his own words, "a cursed family:” a U.S. Information Agency arts administrator on assignment in Durban during the late 1970s, his troubled wife, and their two sons. When the father makes a Faustian bargain in order to move his family to an easier European posting—away from their isolated life in South Africa—his actions have tragic ramifications. The family completely unravels, but the play offers up, as Baitz puts it, "the mysterious possibility of redemption.”
February 1 - June 30, 1996
