PRIVATE JOKES, PUBLIC PLACES
A provocative and hilarious glimpse into the world of contemporary architecture, Private Jokes, Public Places opened as the inaugural production at the Theatre at the Center for Architecture in New York City on November 5, 2003. Sexual tensions and intellectual pretensions intertwine as a graduate student defends her thesis for a public swimming pool to an all-male jury. As the son of renowned architect Moshe Safdie and a former architecture student himself, Oren Safdie uses his extensive knowledge of the industry to capture the full character of architectural discourse as well as examine issues ranging from sexism and race to academia and the failure of postmodernist culture. The play asks compelling questions about the state of the male-female power struggle, fears of disrupting the status quo, and ultimately, the importance of challenging tradition.
