The Red and White Store

Written and Directed by: Kerrie Keane

Featuring: Krista Lewis, Angelina Leaf, Vincent Mann, Marguerite Moreau, Steve Rifkin, Jessica Wright, Steve Cesnik, Elizabeth Harris, Cynthia Rose Hall, Lisa Harman

Location: Deaf West Theatre 5114 Lankershim Blvd. North Hollywood, CA 91601

Run: April 14-May 19 2007

When Cold War paranoia infects the owner of the general store in a small rural American enclave, he begins selling hate and fear instead of apples and conversation, digging a fallout shelter for his neighbors instead of building autumn bonfires for their revelry. At first they poke fun at the folly, but when their radios deliver the telemetric 'beep...beep' of Sputnik I, panic spreads through this community engendering deceit and divisiveness, and unraveling the fabric of its once lively spirit and accord. Who among them will be willing to surrender their minds and humanity for the promise of security in the shelter, and who will stay free of this stifling communal fear?

• When Johnny Comes Marching Homeless by Steven Leigh Morris , LA Weekly 5/10/2007 (All day)  full review

  
  

  "Of the three war plays, writer-director Kerrie Keane’s new production, The Red and White Store, is the only one that tries to wrestle with who we are as Americans, based on who we were...The playwright sows the origins of the kind of fear-mongering, punitive foreign policy we’ve been enduring for the past five years...The character of Ben embodies all the hatred and lethal culture of fear he has escaped. This is good stuff."

• Bringing Sputnik Era up to Date by Philip Brandes, LA Times 5/11/2007 (All day)

  "Though set in 1957, White Buffalo Theatre Company’s original drama, “The Red and White Store”, clearly has more contemporary implications in mind. Writer-director, Kerrie Keane’s parable about a nameless rural heartland community in the grip of Cold War paranoia contemplates the ways freedom and tolerance are all too readily sacrificed in frantic pursuit of a sense of security that proves tragically illusory.” 

• Small Town Portrait Shines by Pauline Adamek, Studio City Sun 5/4/2007 (All day)  full review

  "Artistic director, Kerrie Keane, has written and directed a simply wonderful play. Thanks to her confident approach and attention to detail and mood, her vision has been beautifully realized by her uniformly strong and talented cast and her tech crew...Her brilliant writing makes us invested in each of these characters’ stories, while she deftly controls the creeping dread...I found The Red and White Store to be a fantastic night of entertainment. I urge you not to miss Kerrie Keane’s wonderfully moving, sometimes funny and poignant play."