Zachary Oberzan

After working with the crazy New York theatre company Nature Theater of Oklahoma for a few years, Zachary Oberzan decided to go it alone. And he went for it 100%: he now directs, films, sings and acts. In his performances, he always treads a fine line between fiction and documentary. His stories are autobiographical, but they are also bursting with imagination. And bizarrely enough, despite his personal touch, you are still conscious of a broader, underlying social reality. In 2011, as part of our New York festival, he presented 'Your Brother, Remember', a sometimes tragic, sometimes humorous narrative about his relationship with his brother. His new production, 'Tell Me Love Is Real', will have its world premiere after a residency in our Theatre Studio. In this piece, Zachary Oberzan goes back to the winter of 2011-2012, when he almost died from an overdose of Xanax in an anonymous hotel room on the West Coast of America. At precisely the same moment and in the same circumstances as Whitney Houston. He survived, but Houston did not. Oberzan embarked on the long road to recovery; a road that was dotted with existential questions. In answer to the question of why we go on living, he finally reached the conclusion - how could he not - that it was because of love. In his longing for a hero to show him the way, he brings Buddy Holly, Amelia Earhart, Bruce Lee and Serge Gainsbourg back to life. In the theatre of Zachary Oberzan, personal tragedy is transcended by a humour that puts things into perspective. Theatre cannot exist without 'the other'. And that other is you.