(for immediate release)

The Midnight Company will present Mark Ravenhill's PRODUCT at the fifth annual St. Louis Fringe Festival. Performances will be Friday August 19 at 7pm, Saturday August 20 and Sunday August 21 at 8pm, and Saturday August 27 at 2 & 8pm at the Kranzberg Arts Center Studio, 501 N. Grand, 63103. Tickets are $10, and will be available online July 19. The Fringe Box Office will open August 8, with tickets for all shows available. More information is available at STLFringe.com.

Ravenhill's PRODUCT features a Hollywood producer striving to convince a major star to appear in his latest blockbuster. The script he's relating features torrid scenes of passion, the dark spectre of international terrorism and big, big explosions, as it asks the cinematic question, can a 9/11 widow fall in love with an al-qaeda terrorist? It is a gleeful sendup of the hypocrisy and artificial dream-building of the Hollywood machine, as it turns tragedy and culture clash into vehicles for product placement and sanitized romantic comedy values.

Ravenhill is a British playwright, actor and journalist. He has written several works including SHOPPING AND F***ING and THE CUT, and is the Writer in Residence at The Royal Shakespeare company in London.

Joe Hanrahan, Midnight's Artistic Director, will portray the producer. Hanrahan appeared in a Midnight production Daniel MacIvor's HOUSE at last year's Fringe Festival, and Midnight presented ALL EARS, written and directed by Midnight Associate Director Sarah Whitney at the inaugural St. Louis Fringe.

Just prior to appearing in PRODUCT, Hanrahan performed Will Eno's THOMPAIN (based on nothing) at Herbie's Vintage 72, and later in the year, will direct Joseph Wilde's CUDDLES for Slightly Askew Theatre Company. More information is available at MidnightCompany.com.