LOS ANGELES -- Australian playwright Meredith Oakes' The Neighbor opens Mar. 7 at the 24th Street Theatre, produced by Tuesday Laboratory, a nonprofit company specializing in contemporary British theatre. The play will run in repertory with Cockroach, Who?

Oakes, a seventh-generation Australian who has lived in England since 1970, has a body of work including play translations, opera libretti, television scripts and music criticism.

The Neighbor, which received its world premiere at London's Royal National Theatre in 1993, centers around two young men living in a London housing project who, after a series of incidents born out of jealous suspicions over a local girl, suddenly become enemies, invoking destructive forces beyond their control.

Mark Bringelson directs a cast including Weston Blakesley, Jacque Lynn Colton, Miles Eastman, Pamela Gordon, Gary Gunner, Robin Merrill and Karen Stapleton.

The Neighbor runs through Mar. 29 at the 24th St. Theatre, 1117 W. 24th St. For tickets, $15, call (213) 660-8587. -- By Willard Manus
Southern California Correspondent