A stage production about former FBI officials Lisa Page and Peter Strzok has secured a new location after being dropped from one theater over security concerns.
“FBI Lovebirds: Undercovers,” starring Dean Cain and Kristy Swanson, is scheduled for 7 p.m. June 13 at the amphitheater at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, switching venues after being ejected by the Studio Theatre-Mead Theatre.
The theater canceled the production after learning of “undisclosed details about the event,” and receiving “open and violent threats against the theater and participants,” according to a statement posted on Hollywood in Toto.
Playwright Phelim McAleer, who had accused the Studio Theatre of a “blatant attempt at censorship,” said he was “thrilled” by the new venue. Both the Studio and the Ronald Reagan Building amphitheater are located in Washington, D.C.
“This is a victory for artistic freedom and the truth, and a victory over the cowards who tried to stop the play,” said Mr. McAleer in a Wednesday statement. “It’s great to be able to put the truth about these ’Deep State’ shenanigans on the stage and release it online so everyone can see what was really going on behind closed doors.”
I reached out to 14 theater groups for this story … guess how many responded?
— Christian Toto (@HollywoodInToto) June 5, 2019
Artistic Community Covers Its Ears Over Violent Threat to #FBILovebirds https://t.co/3s4d5R7ckS @RealDeanCain
The play has been billed as “verbatim theater” in which Mr. Cain and Ms. Swanson perform a dramatized reading of text messages between Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page, who sent thousands of anti-Trump messages each other in 2015 and 2016 while they were having an affair.
Mr. Strzok, the most senior FBI agent working on special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia collusion probe, was fired in August 2018, while Ms. Page, an FBI lawyer, resigned in May 2018.
Mr. McAleer and Ann McElhinney are conservative Irish filmmakers and journalists known for their films and stage productions taking on hot-button topics, most recently the 2018 movie “Gosnell,” also starring Mr. Cain, about the murder trial Philadelphia abortion Dr. Kermit Gosnell.
The duo’s 2015 production “Ferguson,” a dramatic reading of the grand-jury proceedings in the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown, saw nine cast members walk out in Los Angeles.
“FBI Lovebirds” is being financed by crowdfunding and had raised $95,502 on Indiegogo as of Thursday, surpassing its goal of $95,000.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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