Culture Project Will Debut Packer's Betrayed in 2008

By Adam Hetrick
December 13, 2007

The Culture Project will stage Betrayed, the playwriting debut of "The New Yorker" contributor George Packer, in January 2008.

Packer, who first published a 2007 "New Yorker" article about Iraqis risking their lives to aid the American war effort, has crafted those interviews into his first work for the stage. Betrayed will premiere at the Culture Project Jan. 25, with an opening night scheduled for Feb. 5, 2008.

Betrayed, according to press materials, "tells the story of three young Iraqis - two men and a woman - who are motivated by hope to go work for the Americans, until they begin to wonder who, if anyone, can be trusted. Betrayed explores the complex relationships among the Iraqis – and between them – and their American supervisor, against the backdrop of a war in which the hardest and most necessary thing turns out to be friendship."

Pippin Parker, co-artistic director of the Culture Project's "Democracy Project," will stage Packer's work. Casting is currently underway.

Packer's Betrayed is also slated for a January 2008 publication by Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publishers.

Tickets for Betrayed, on sale beginning Dec. 14, are available by calling (212) 352-3101 or by visiting www.cultureproject.org.

The Culture Project is located in Manhattan at 55 Mercer Street.