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INTERNATIONAL TOURING PERFORMANCE TEAMS-UP WITH LOCAL THEATRE TO PRESENT PLAY ABOUT MINING
(Sydney, Australia) The Factory Theatre Fuse Box will be present Butcher Holler Here We Come, an award-winning,
international theatre performance for a limited engagement at 105 Victoria Road Marrickville, NSW for 5-nights
only, Saturday, March 14 through Wednesday, March 19th.

Created by the NYC-based theatre company, Ad Hoc Economy, the play is travelling around the world and has received widespread critical acclaim and honors,including the 2019 Hollywood Fringe Festival’s and 2017 Broadway World’s, ‘Best Original Full-Length Script’.

Billed as “a descent into the male psyche-in-crisis” and hailed as “a jarring and fine play” by The New York Times,
the performance is a linguistic and immersive experience that is entirely lit by headlamps. Following a cave
collapse, 5 coal miners struggle to survive the dwindling supply of oxygen, the lack of food and water, the
unravelling sense of passing time, and - even more threatening- their own competing natures. Brutally weaving
through family histories, complicated friendships, crooked politics, childhood dreams, criminal addictions, and
fervent spirituality in a run-of-the-mill Appalachian community, Butcher Holler Here We Come is a thriller where
secret desires, carnal urges, and hidden memories come boiling to the surface.

The 5-night only shows in Sydney are part of a broader ‘Down Under’ tour for the group, including dates in New
Zealand. Ad Hoc Economy’s Artistic Director, Cole Wimpee, says that the show has played in 15 United State cities,
but that Australia was chosen as their international premiere due to the coal-mining politics under scrutiny here.
“This play is like an exciting, rollercoaster-ride. An edge-of-your-seat experience that places the audience in the
middle of a mining disaster. Although it is funny, and about friendship, it is also about the sacrifices these workers
make to bring precious fuel to our communities – as well as the large-scale costs to society when these industries
are left unregulated.”

The NYC theatre group, with some members who hail from Texas originally, have added a major guest role in the
cast to be played by Australian-based theatre teacher and actor, Brendan Flood. “Butcher Holler Here We Come is
edgy theatre; it is experimental, but also tested through many cities of tours and widespread critical praise,” Flood
says. “Coal Mining in Australia and the U.S. is undergoing a much larger conversation in our communities about
how generations use the land we all live on. Since Australia is the 2nd biggest exporter of coal, the Americans felt
this was an all-too-fitting place to bring the play and have a discussion for its international premiere,” Flood says.
Told in near-to-total darkness, with the use of headlamps to illuminate the actors while they weave in and
around the audience, the play invites a visceral, terrifying, and yet both funny and moving account of the life of
miners. After performing in Sydney, Butcher Holler Here We Come will travel to Wellington, where it will be
presented at New Zealand Fringe and then South, to the Dunedin Fringe. Butcher Holler Here We Come runs
approximately 1 hour, 10 minutes with no intermission. Adult Content.

Saturday, March 14th – 7:00PM (Opening) @Factory Theatre Fuse Box
-UNTIL (5 PERFORMANCES ONLY)- 105 Victoria Road, Marrickville, NSW 2204 AU
Wednesday, March 18th (Closing) – 7:00PM (Closing) Tickets: $15 in advance / $20 door

SYNOPSIS: 

Butcher Holler Here We Come is a critically-acclaimed and award-winning original performance that
descends into the interior landscape of the male psyche-in-crisis. ‘Toxic Masculinity’ is examined at
its very source: five working class coal miners provide an archetypical cross-section of manhood
which, when turned in on itself, negotiates a poetic and horrifying reckoning upon their own history.
The result is a hallucinatory framework where secrets, lies, carnal desires, and traumatic lineages are
unearthed and reversed. Other connotations of this toxicity are given dramatic voice through the
politics of environmentalism, class, sexual orientation, and faith – all in a rapid-pace meditation on
survival and the nature of reality itself. Told in near-to-total darkness, with the use of headlamps to
illuminate the actors while they weave in and around the audience, the play invites a visceral,
terrifying, and emotionally-wrought forging of manhood as it actively interrogates itself, against the
backdrop forces of an un-anthropomorphic world. Proclaimed as “a jarring and fine introduction” to
the festival by the New York Times, Butcher Holler Here We Come is a new American play that fuses
the philosophy of Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty with a poetic dialogue akin to Breece D’J Pancake’s
short stories to provoke a deeply and socially-relevant conversation about gender, nature, economy,
spirituality, and the phenomenology of storytelling, en masse.

Send inquiries to Marilyn Mithra-Stone at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

PRESS QUOTES:

“Visceral. A jarring piece of theater and a fine introduction to the Tank’s DarkFest!” – New York Times

“A Fast-paced thriller. Bold, inventive, crisp staging. A finale that is at once terrifying and exciting!” – NY Theatre Now

“A Vulnerable and exciting experience. Committed and powerful performances. One grand hallucination!” – NY TheatreScene

“Inspired direction by Leah Bonvissuto of a strong cast.” – Dallas Morning News

“The play feels like a secret, as if the audience is the first to witness an undiscovered talent...it is
an incomparable production that tests the limits of theatre.” – Arkansas Traveler

“Wildly fantastical & disturbingly real!” – Austin Entertainment Weekly

“Stunning & a cathartic theatre piece not to be missed!” – BroadwayWorld

“A powerful sensory experience...with committed, great performers!” -Austin Chronicle

“It is a great inspiration to learn that theater is still alive in this country....work that is food for the senses and the spirit” –Baltimore Examiner

The result fuses the creeping horror of The Shining with the tension of Mamet’s American Buffalo” – TheaterJones

“Shattering...[It] played like a combination nightmare, mystery rite, and horror ride at a depraved
theme park.. The acting is terrific: elemental, raw, and persuasively aggressive. Leah Bonvissuto’s
direction could hardly be more menacing. Casey Wimpee’s script is, finally, awe-inspiring. The
consistency of a shocking dream and authority of brutal poetry” –CreativeLoafing, Tampa

“Wonderful...exceptional performances and use of our own senses against us making it a standout
Fringe 2013 experience....unnerving and allows us to experience the loss of our rational world
even as the trapped coal-miners lose their grip on their own.” -Black and Gold Review

“Perfectly executed in performance.” –Southern Glossary Magazine

“An intense, funny, scary, dark experience... five excellent actors with an engrossing, serious script that keeps you on the edge of your seat... See the show, and be prepared to leave a piece of your soul in the dark space.” –CityBeat, Cincinnati

“An intense drama....the acting is excellent....very compelling” –New Orleans Defender

“Expertly Crafted...gripping from the opening seconds...this is a play about darkness and sound. The five actors work like a well-oiled machine.”– –Pegasus News

“Literally and figuratively underground theater at its best! ...The playwright does not shy from
showing men at their worst; there is no sentimentality in this play. At the same time, he manages
to portray these besieged miners with respect and understanding... Part ghost story, part
psychological thriller, part dark comedy, Butcher Holler is a remarkable drama featuring five
actors whose commitment and dedication to this challenging, uncompromising work are worthy of a Fringe prize!” — Total Theatre

“A gut-punch of a play...Written by the always-edgy Casey Wimpee and directed furiously by Leah Bonvissuto, it’s a snarl of a piece...an Epic poem! – BC BlogCritics, NYC

“Dramatic, disturbing and ingeniously staged... the result is constantly shifting sound and visual
perspectives that can often surprise and rattle the audience. (Bless live theater, there is no way a
movie would be able to give you this type of visceral sensation!) Highly entertaining, innovative
and impressive, this is a fascinating journey.” — Haunt Life / Hollywood Fringe

“Guided by director Leah Bonvissuto, it’s some of the most grounded, honest acting I’ve seen
from a company in a long time ... a near-perfect script!” – Matt Ritchey, Hollywood Fringe

“The mission of [Ad Hoc] Economy is to showcase works with an emphasis on “American Culture
and its relationship to ritual, mythology, madness, dreams, and deliverance.” Butcher Holler Here
We Come stomps and kicks and gasps its way through each one of these huge topics, swirling
them around in a pitch dark stew, imploring us to hold on and pray for escape.” – StageBuddy
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Butcher Holler Here We Come has additionally been honored with the Inkwell Playwright of Promise Award (2019), Best Ensemble (Hollywood Fringe, 2019) Broadway World’s Outstanding Original Full-Length Script (2017) and has been nominated for New York Innovative Theatre’s Actor in a Lead Role (Adam Belvo, 2015).