The Viewing Room with Leonard Roberts at Arts

Practicum Theatre presents, The Viewing Room, by Daniel Joshua Rubin, which opens at the Arts Theatre 5 March 2008, following a preview on 4 March - running to 29 March 2008.

The cast includes Leonard Roberts, James Flynn, Samantha Wright.

Leonard Roberts is best known for playing DL Hawkins, the loving father with the ability to walk through walls, in BBC2's 'Heroes'. He played villains Forrest Gates in 12 episodes of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and Nam-Ek in 'Smallville'. He gained 20 pounds to play the legendary boxer Joe Louis in the TV biopic 'Joe and Max'. His latest film, the thriller 'The Stone House', is in post production.

A solution to chronic prison overcrowding leads to convicted criminals being housed with ordinary citizens in their homes: A young couple have 'volunteered' to do social service, choosing to take in a prisoner ostensibly soon to be released back into the community. 'Their' prisoner comes housed in a cage and is accompanied with an instruction manual with rules of engagement, and their apartment is fitted with surveillance equipment. Their 'superiors' have a range of ways of maintaining a dominant contact and control of behaviour within the apartment. The couple have become unpaid prison guards. But gradually they discover that their prisoner is not who they think he might be, that their trust has been betrayed, that their prisoner's crime is …indistinct, that their flat may become a suburb of death row. The State is baying, but who is to die?

** The opening night gala performance on Wednesday March 5 will benefit Amnesty International and the play will be featured in Amnesty's events to mark the 60th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights.