Finalist for the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play
London, England, 1912–Cringeworthy is a tale of innocent people who are drawn into an unimaginable nightmare. Luigi and Angelina Tarantella, a young couple from Naples, owe Mr Cringeworthy an awful lot of money and cannot pay it. By pressing them into service to work off their debt, Cringeworthy reveals the depths of his perversions and the lengths he will go to satisfy them. The Tarantellas fall into a relentless cycle of crime and addiction as the bonds of marriage are replaced by a web of deceit. Greed, sex and corruption–it’s all in a day’s work.
News & Reviews
“A yarn of deliciously dark proportions, Cringeworthy is a roller coaster ride into the darkest of hearts. Brilliant… The best three-hander to hit a stage since The Drawer Boy.” —Winnipeg Free Press
“Has the power to send a cold shiver up your spine… seductive and satisfying..” —Toronto Star
About the Author
Alex Poch-Goldin is an acclaimed playwright and actor whose work has been produced internationally. His plays include Anybody and Nobody, Jim and Shorty, The Bad Luck Bank Robbers, Cringeworthy, Internazionale, The Life of Jude, The Right Road to Pontypool, This Hotel, Yahrzeit, and This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, adapted from the work of Tadeusz Borowski. Cringeworthy and This Hotel were both nominated for the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, and the French version of This Hotel (L’Hotel) won the 2005 CBC/Le Droit prize for best production in Ottawa. His play Yahrzeit won the Toronto Jewish Playwriting Award and will receive its world premiere in Germany prior to touring Europe. Alex was commissioned by CBC Radio to write The Death of Simon Pinchuk, which was recorded and broadcast nationally. He has also developed an orginal television series, Rosedale, in addition to adapting his play Jim and Shorty for broadcast on Bravo Television. Alex lives in Winnipeg.
