Driving The Saudis

NY Fringe Festival TICKETS : FringeNYC.org

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DRIVING THE SAUDIS is a one-woman show based on Larson's real life experience as a chauffeur for a family of Saudi Royals visiting Beverly Hills—for 7 weeks of shopping and plastic surgery. As the only woman in a detail of almost 50 drivers assigned to the family and its extensive entourage, Ms. Larson details her invitation inside one of the most closely guarded private monarchies in the world. DRIVING THE SAUDIS explores and challenges American perceptions of beauty, culture, religion, and the subjugation of women, through the curious eyes of the actress-turned-chauffeur.

This multi-media piece includes original film footage and found stills which illuminate the story and content.

"It’s a story that sounds almost too incredible—the kind you’d eavesdrop in on at a restaurant. ‘The worst job I ever had,’ is how actress Jayne Amelia Larson describes being a chauffeur in Beverly Hills. Not just an ordinary chauffeur. But a driver for vacationing Saudi royalty. Larson turned her eye-opening ordeal into a biting solo performance piece called “Driving the Saudis,” which launched Playhouse on the Square’s first series dedicated to solo works Thursday night at TheatreWorks...partly a comedic recollection of being part of a 50-person detail of drivers who were to accommodate a major Saudi Arabian princess, seven additional family members and dozens of friends, nannies, secretaries and servants. Larson takes on the personas of her most memorable passengers: a teenage royal who insists on cranking up the stereo, a cigarette-smoking hairdresser on a gambling binge, and the self-important assistants who send her shopping for 27 bottles of hair remover. Behind the humor, however, is sharp social commentary that should leave every audience member questioning their car’s fuel efficiency.”

— Memphis Commercial Appeal