Books published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc

from Interview, August 1987 by Kevin Sessums: "There's a creature known in the South as a feist dog. Little. Scraggly. High-strung. You know where one lives by a backyard full of barks. The thing'll take on a German shepard-shit, the whole German army-if it thinks its territory is being threatened. But it likes kids too. And it likes the feel of a hand on its underbelly. Playwright and screenwriter Alan Bowne, whose work concerns the scraggly underbelly of life itself, has the friendly tenacity of one of those tight-tailed mutts… Bowne didn't start writing until he was 35. Before that? `I bummed around. Drug dealer. Movie extra. Junkie…' …he begins to growl away at a number of subjects. …Love: `Living without love is death itself. If you have love in your life-the true thing-then you've got everything.'"And that is what Alan Bowne's great plays-BEIRUT, SHARON AND BILLY-are about.THE LITTLE MONSTERS tells the story of, in the author's words: Maurice, a bald myopic WASP in his late 50s; Kip, a slight plain scruffy male in his late teens, of Irish extraction; 3-Yard, a coarse handsome well-built male in his late teens, of Italian extraction; and Gooey, a plump flashy Jewish female in her late teens-a hitter.

Editor's Pick: "DAY OF THE DOG, an absorbing play." Judith Newmark, Saint Louis Post Dispatch "…the real star of the evening is Daniel Damiano's text. His voice is distinct and refreshing with a tone that reminds me of an Edward Albee with a bit more rooting in reality. …A playwright to watch." Greg Solomon, Theatre is Easy "The show hits the ground running and doesn't stop for what is a riveting two hours. …the work is virtually flawless, as is its execution. …Mr Damiano's play masterfully disassembles the porous foundation of this family. He shows us the humor of a dysfunctional marriage, of a couple living in denial, without ever resorting to caricature. …Organic dialogue flows effortlessly from the mouths of rich, truthful characters." Dmitry Zvonkov, Stage & Cinema

"Georg Büchner's three surviving dramatic texts show the playwright wrestling with divergent styles in a struggle to convey his bleak worldview. …Sean Graney reveal[s] much the same process. Both artists want to build on centuries-old theatrical traditions yet shred the niceties of conventional theater to expose life's raw nerves… …Graney exploits his trademark techniques-stark design, inflated acting, self-reflexive presentation-to create an explosive, richly unpleasant affair.… Büchner poured every ounce of his cynicism into Prince Leonce, whose absurd battle with boredom fuels LEONCE UND LENA. Leonce can find nothing better to do with his days than spit on a rock 365 times in a row, convinced that human beings `fall in love, marry, and multiply out of boredom, and finally they die out of boredom.' His childish father has betrothed him to the Princess Lena, a plan that will greatly interfere with Leonce's commitment to idleness.… Since Büchner is satirizing the theatrical conventions of his day, she's earnestly trying to become a fairy-tale princess, spouting poetic rhapsodies about flowers and dragonflies-while wrestling with the realization that `there are people who are unhappy, incurably so, simply because they exist.' For this play Büchner drew heavily on the conventions of commedia dell'arte, then a nearly 300-year-old tradition of stock rustic characters in cartoonish, often ribald situations. Graney transforms the genre into menacing farce, inflating the characters' passions to such volatile extremes that they often quake as though ready to explode." Justin Hayford, The Chicago Reader

"…Adam Seidel's serio-comic CATCH THE BUTCHER…evoke[s] both the dank confines of Hannibal Lecter's cell in The Silence of the Lambs and the fireplace textures of 1960s suburban homes. Both environments, literally or figuratively, can be prisons, which is only appropriate for this quirky, unsettling and rewarding play. Strains of the country ditty All My Ex's Live in Texas…conjure the location. Nancy, a single woman, sits on a park bench before she is chloroformed and kidnapped by Bill, a fastidious serial killer. Awakening in his basement liar, she finds him with accessories familiar to fans of Dexter and the Hostel movies: an industrial apron and a cabinet full of chemicals and surgical instruments. Bill intends to kill her, but she enchants him with her admiration for the poems he composes and leaves with his victims. It turns out she intentionally positioned herself as bait. The bond between the lonely Nancy and the broody Bill evolves into love and, briefly, a kind of conservative domestic bliss: She cleans house and cooks, while he goes to work (he's a doctor) and returns to read the newspaper, have a martini and be doted on. But Nancy grows bored, and reaches out to their neighbor Joanne, whom she invites over, against Bill's wishes, for supper. Bill, a control freak is not pleased. …Mr Seidel's effective blend of romance, absurdism, satire and dread…" Andy Webster, The New York Times

"What if Neil Simon wrote a lovable comedy about a Muslim-American family trying to hold itself together amidst the misunderstandings that run amuck and the comedy that ensues when the generations collide? It would probably resemble something like the surprisingly enjoyable, charming and oftentimes hilarious TEN ACROBATS IN AN AMAZING LEAP OF FAITH." Fabrizio O Almeida, New City Chicago "With TEN ACROBATS IN AN AMAZING LEAP OF FAITH, playwright Yussef El Guindi takes the genre (of the immigrant experience) to a new place-the Arab-American experience post September 11, 2001. With humor, passion and a lovely touch of whimsy, he's created a theatrical experience that's not to be missed." Louis Weisberg, CFP "El Guindi's engrossing play…finds a workable balance between sharp humor and head-banging angst, which shapes his story effectively." Mary Houlihan, Chicago Sun-Times "Woven into this complicated family drama are scenes of delightful humor. Humanity is the substance that ties not only all of the characters together but also binds the audience to them. This play beautifully serves the purposes of drama, comedy, the artistic theatrical process and, perhaps most importantly, demystifying the hate that comes from fear of unknown cultures." Venus Zarris, Gay Chicago Magazine "The drama comes from an emotionally vivid story that captures a world of anger, joy, love and frustration as it plays out in a Muslim-American family. The appeal lies in Guindi's ability to transcend ethnicity while still writing a rich depiction of a Muslim family… The emotional difficulties could belong to any family of any (or no) religion… Smart, challenging, poignant, whimsical and at times, delightfully silly." Catey Sullivan, Pioneer Press

A Puerto Rican hit woman, her mentally challenged son, and a janitor who dreams of nothing more than being a father meet the neighbors from hell. Crass, rude and desperate these neighbors are like everybody else, looking for a way to end their loneliness. These characters find out the hard way that family comes first.LA BELLA FAMILIA is a winner of the New York Foundation for the Arts Playwriting Fellowship and the National Latino Playwriting Award.

A deeply intelligent, provoking, and witty play, PARADISE STREET wrestles with important questions of class and gender in this country. It takes you for a wild ride through the transformation of several characters dealing with what feminism has done for, and to, their lives.

Donald Freed's stage version of HAMLET (IN REHEARSAL) unearths a buried play within the play within the play in which a guilt-imprisoned, state-imprisoned, cosmically-imprisoned Hamlet lunges for and ultimately grasps the quietus of freedom. It is an explosively original, marvelously creative feat of Nabokovian intellectual acrobatics. Wonderful!Leon Katz, Leon Katz' Edition of the Notebooks of Gertrude Stein, Emeritus Professor, Yale UniversityIf Shakespeare had reawakened in the oppressed theater of the 21st century, read Beckett, watched C N N and had a stiff drink, this is the play he would have written.Adam Leipzig, producer & dramaturgDonald Freed has brought us a completely new concept of Hamlet and a brilliant one. Setting up a rehearsal play to take its place with Buckingham and Michael Frayn, he engineers a high level debate/conflict, funny and active enough to hold any audience tight. The central impression is of a director beset like Hamlet, and a Hamlet with a great deal of the director. They share a predicament, fight it out and the audience wins.Edward Pearce, Machiavelli's Children, The Great Man, The GuardianNo actor with a pulse could read this play without wanting to get up and do it. Freed takes us into dark corridors between the lines of Shakespeare's play, creating a brilliant met-drama full of theatrical joy, startling epiphany and crackling-good language. Unique as can be.Ron Marasco, PhD, author of Notes to an ActorDonald Freed's HAMLET (IN REHEARSAL) is a revelation that rings so true, you will wonder why you never thought of it. Freed has trumped his own genius. Amazing!Lorinne Vozoff, Artistic Director, Theatre Group Studio

No politician is as beloved as New York City Mayor John Kendrick, the four-term hero who triumphed during crisis and eliminated homelessness. But if the truth the mayor is hiding comes to light, it could leave New York in ruins. As cataclysm looms, New Yorkers' lives intersect, leading a power-hungry aide, a struggling author, and a loud-mouthed journalist to uncover a devastating series of lies. History, legacy, and death collide while a city races toward the worst disaster it has ever faced. The destruction will be tweeted.

Jane Austen’s mastery of manners and morals is on full display in Christopher Baker’s stage adaptation of her beloved masterpiece, Pride and Prejudice. In the Bennet sisters’ world, marriage is the prize, but for second-eldest, Lizzy, companionship trumps blind courtship. Enter Mr. Darcy, and one of literature’s most iconic and tempestuous romances takes flight. Journey through a world quite unlike—and yet perhaps not so different from—our own, as Lizzy and Darcy learn that first impressions aren’t all they seem, and that second chances can lead to answers that have been there the entire time.   “While respectful of Austen, [Baker] does not aim for mere imitation or by-the-numbers re-creation; the dialogue sounds authentic and natural. This is, above all, an entertaining work of theater… Most impressive, perhaps, is how Baker does all of this without making it feel forced. Even though we know right from the get-go that ever-so-independent-minded Elizabeth Bennet and haughty Mr Darcy will eventually overcome their initial dislike for each other, their journey remains intriguing, each bump in the road delivering sufficient jolt, with the final destination delivering a true emotional payoff. Note, too, the abundant humor. This PRIDE AND PREJUDICE gets a good deal of amusing mileage from Austen’s deft targeting of stuffiness, hypocrisy and social machinations—traits all too prevalent in our day, too, as you might have noticed.”Tim Smith, Baltimore Sun

After Warren proposes to Josie, she decides she must make one last attempt to find her long-lost father before she walks down the aisle. She sets off that morning on a journey across the mountains.When her car breaks down and she's invited into the Wright's home she's dumbstruck to find her father there, living a perfect life with a perfect wife and daughter-oblivious of his past. Desperate to stay she agrees to anything asked of her-giving up her identity, her past and ultimately her voice. When Warren arrives and is captured by the spell of the Wrights, Josie must decide between her father and her future, her silence and her voice-a choice which plays out in the final scene of Warren and Belle's wedding. ONCE UPON A BRIDE THERE WAS A FOREST is a lyrical, haunting, and surprisingly funny fairy tale about children and parents, forgetting and remembering, and the power of a good story to capture us or set us free. "A beautifully imagined modern day fairytale,"Amanda LaPergola, Theater is Easy "Palmer weaves a bit of Dark Shadows, a wee bit of Rocky Horror, a flicker of Twilight Zone and even a hint of The Wizard of Oz into a full-length comedy-drama-thriller perfect for a dark night when hopes seem thin."Jon Sobel, BlogCritics

A rock retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice through the eyes of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, combining elements from Dante's Inferno and Nirvana's lyrics, to explore the essence of faith and love. "adobe [theatre company] knows just how to retool old forms and artists … to produce new theater games. So its ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE begins with bad sex and ends with death and everlasting angst, with rock 'n' roll in the middle … Orpheus fronts and writes songs for his band In Your Thrace (That's right, the Greek Orpheus was from Thrace)… Myths and references crisscross brazenly. The playwright and director Jeremy Dobrish (adobe's artistic director) accomplishes all this with compact writing and versatile humor (sometimes he's witty, sometimes he's farcical, sometimes he's deliberately corny)… It's all quite winning. Young, smart, a trifle skittish about sustained emotion, but filled with comic pleasures."Margo Jefferson, The New York Times

"As Gunpowder Joe begins, Mary Priestley urges her world-famous husband to flee as a mob approaches their home in Birmingham, England. But the scientist, whose political writings have inflamed his foes previously, isn't perturbed. `It will be fine', Joseph Priestley tells his worried wife. `They have been content to hang me in effigy for years.' `They may be done pretending', Mary retorts. Thus, the world premiere of Anthony Clarvoe's historical drama- `Gunpowder Joe: Joseph Priestley, Pennsylvania and the American Experiment' -gets off to a fast start… In the end, the Priestleys flee, and the rioters torch their residence, which contains the scientist's laboratory and library.… It quickly establishes how well connected Priestley became after settling in Pennsylvania. He soon had friends-and foes-in high places. In one scene, he and President John Adams are having tea when Priestley suggests that Adams appoint Thomas Cooper, another English expatriate who has settled in Northumberland, to a federal post. The president reacts sharply. `I would never give such a position to a foreigner', Adams declares, adding that such appointments should be given only to `loyal Americans'.… Animated, occasionally humorous and always enlightening, Clarvoe's drama shatters any notion that Priestley, internationally known for discovering oxygen in 1774, spent his last decade living quietly in Northumberland content to pursue new discoveries. It shows how he helped strengthen our First Amendment right to say things about our government that even the president may not like."John L Moore, The Daily Item

"FIREPOWER has enough explosive material in its arsenal for half a dozen plays."John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press "FIREPOWER…explores the challenge of trust, honesty, respect, and love through the reunion of two generations of African American men."Yuko Kurahashi, San Diego Free PressKermit Frazier is one of the most underrated, under-the-radar African American playwrights of his generation… [His] plays are both lyrical and richly theatrical. And while they typically deal unflinchingly with the landscape of African American life and the socio-political issues of that life, the scope of his work ranges far beyond that culture.Woodie King, Jr, Producing Director, New Federal Theatre

In Eduardo De Filippo's classic Neapolitan tale, Filumena, a former prostitute, has been living with with shopkeeper Domenico for twenty-five years. Domenico would like to marry the young Diana, but Filumena feigns mortal illness to convince Domenico to marry her in extremis, which he does. When he finds out he's been duped, he has the marriage annulled. But Filumena will not give up. She's determined to make a family and reveals that she has three sons, one of whom is Domenico's, but she will not tell him which one. Eventually he concedes to her wishes and remarries her, accepting all three sons as his own.

A play about the great George Orwell meeting his American audience, his American readers-a trip which never in fact occurred: In the first years after World War II the author of Animal Farm is chaperoned during an American book tour by a fetching young woman, whose job is to dissuade Orwell from telling Americans why he is a proud socialist. "Mr Sutton has created an intriguing scenario, with proficient dialogue."Ken Jaworowski, The New York Times "The premise of a young person accompanying an author of great esteem on a heart-of-America book tour recalls the recent David Foster Wallace movie The End of the Tour, and there is indeed something action-oriented about this production, which skips energetically among hotels and cities and speaking arenas. 'Time and place are dealt with rather cinematically,' Sutton said of the play, in an interview… Take the trip with him."The Village Voice "Brilliant… Orwell's discomfort, loneliness, humor and passion are all developed before us in language that is very much the author's. It is lively as well as precise."Susan Hall, Berkshire Fine Arts

Neal Bell's adaptation of Frank Norris's novel tells the story of a couple's courtship and marriage, and their subsequent descent into poverty, violence, and finally murder as the result of jealousy and greed. "Frank Norris's novel McTeague is a panorama of the U S at the turn of the century: cowboys, gold mines, the immigrant experience, the advent of electricity and the movies. At the core is a gruesome cautionary tale, aptly retitled Greed by Erich Von Stroheim when he made a nine-hour film of it in 1923 … In adapting it anew … Neal Bell's script [tells] a story of downward mobility, about a miner turned dentist (sans diploma) who winds up defrocked and doomed in an abandoned mine." -William A Henry III, Time "Bell weaves a thick, dark tapestry of themes from MCTEAGUE's epic of incidents. Socially, the focus is on the helplessness of a rough simpleton in a rapidly urbanizing and professionalizing America - and on the determination of immigrants and bootstrap-tuggers to cling to the middle class rather than fall into the Victorian abyss of want. Psychologically, it's on the metamorphosis of McTeague's innocent ignorance into murderous rage - and Trina's sensible shift into masochistic self-denial. Morally, it's on the life-choking consequences of treating money as an end in itself rather than a means toward fulfilling human needs. Each of these levels resonates through the adaptation's writing." -Scott Rosenberg, San Francisco Examiner

Kreon, the king of Thebes, has decreed that his nephew, the rebel soldier Polynices, will lie where he died in battle, as food for the birds and dogs. But Polynices' sister Antigone gives him a proper burial, even knowing that Kreon's penalty is death by stoning. Kreon's son Hamon, who is engaged in marriage to Antigone, pleads for her life, but is rebuffed by his father, and Hamon renounces him. The fortune-teller Tiresias warns Kreon that his son will die by the end of the day - dead for the dead - and the Chorus persuades the shaken Kreon to relent and save Antigone. But it is too late. Both Antigone and Hamon have killed themselves.

This literary masterpiece by one of the world's greatest authors is brought to vibrant life in this new adaptation. Four estranged brothers unexpectedly come together in their father's village, knowing that one intends to commit a terrible crime, but not knowing which of them will do it. Every fact, every motive, every belief about human nature, faith and redemption are questioned in this dynamic quest for truth."Anthony Clarvoe's adaptation of Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov is a grand achievement, a reminder of how good theater can be. This excellent show satisfies and impresses in equal measure." -Terry Morgan, Variety"THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV has been my steady companion since opening night. It's a dazzling, existential whodunit about patricide, the existence of God and the anatomy of human nature. Clarvoe is among contemporary American dramatists pioneering a different path along common ground, that uses American experience, language that is both rich and familiar, behavior that is both complex and identifiable, to find a non-threatening yet provocative and challenging way into the classics." -Jackie Demaline, The Cincinnati Enquirer"Clarvoe's carefully wrought play is richly layered, with bold comedic touches leavening the serious themes. THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV addresses the mind, the spirit and the funny bone, and will not quickly be forgotten." -Patricia Corrigan, St Louis Post-Dispatch"Clarvoe's ability to take moments of the past and make them highly magnified, slightly unfocused and yet strangely rational views of today, has been shown before; his plays THE LIVING and SHOW AND TELL had successful productions …" -Joe Pollack, Variet

Couplehood and infidelity are subject to scrutiny in Anthony Clarvoe's oblique ode to LA RONDE. "Mr Clarvoe, previously represented in New York by PICK UP AX, a comedy about corporate intrigue in Silicon Valley that got good reviews when it was produced by 29th Street Rep in 1995, finds himself in an unusual position for a young playwright: two of his works are running concurrently in Manhattan. Besides LET'S PLAY TWO, which he wrote several years ago, his newest play, WALKING OFF THE ROOF, is being presented by the Signature Theater Company, the estimable Off-Broadway troupe that devotes each season to the work of one living American playwright. John Guare is the company's featured writer this year; Mr Clarvoe's play has been shepherded to production through a separate program for mid-career playwrights. Like LET'S PLAY TWO, WALKING OFF THE ROOF is an attempt to clear the spoiled air between men and women, only Mr Clarvoe's concern in this case is the end of relationships, not the beginning. With a nod to Harold Pinter's BETRAYAL, the play details a roundel of infidelities committed by a pair of couples, one married, the other not."Peter Marks, The New York Times "Anthony Clarvoe's fine ear for dialogue, and the sputterings of men and women ensnared by longing, juices his nervous, edgy roundelay depicting several couples and their bed manners. Sadness and disconnectedness reign with poignance, wit, and credibility."Laurie Stone, Village Voice

This collection includes twelve short and very short plays: CHARLOTTE, LIZZY, PAOLA AND ANDREA AT THE ALTAR OF WORDS, PHONE CALL IN THE RAIN, THE SHOWER, THE BOOK OF FISHES, YELLOW, THE FALL OF THE SPARROW, LESSONS FOR AN UNACCUSTOMED BRIDE, LOUISA, IMPACT, and SERMON FOR SENSES.Broadway Play Publishing Inc has published eight of José Rivera's full-length plays, including CLOUD TECTONICS and REFERENCES TO SALVADOR DALÍ MAKE ME HOT.His screenplay for The Motorcycle Diaries was nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, making him the first Puerto Rican writer to be nominated for an Academy Award.

Abraham Zobell is a man like other men. No better, not much worse. But, unlike other men, he has a vital need to lay flowers on an ocean grave before it's too late. Though he's recovering from a recent heart attack, Abe rejects the pleas of his wife and the advice of his doctors, rips out his IV, and sets out on a pilgrimage to the sea. Along the way, he encounters ghosts and memories, music and moonlight, pilgrim strangers, and even stranger friends. "Len Jenkin not only has a vivid imagination, but he also has an artist's command of his craft."New York Times "Len Jenkin has an unusual talent for reaching into shadowy places in the human psyche and coming up with evocative images."Journal American (Seattle) "Jenkin's plays have plenty of plot and delicious language, but the transience of experience is the main theme that runs through Jenkin's work. He manipulates theatrical illusions with a playful manner that recalls Jorge Luis Borges, to disguise meditations on mortality."Village Voice (New York)

"IN A PIG'S VALISE is a musical comedy spoof of the hot-cool private-eye pulp fiction associated with Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Except that it's wilder, much wilder. VALISE, among other oddities, features a stubby villain named Shrimp Bucket, an 'ethnic dancer' heroine named Dolores Con Leche (or, as the gumshoe hero, James Taxi, calls her, Sadness With Milk) and, in a bit part homage to Hammett's real-life lover, an undercover F B I agent named Lillian Hellman... Spiced with songs by August Darnell (Kid Creole) that bear such lines as 'Kiss me deadly' and 'Never judge a thriller by its cover' ... [a] broad, winking satire of the language and plot conventions of the old books and movies."Richard Christiansen, The Chicago Tribune

Ibsen's 1881 masterpiece finds a fresh interpretation in Anthony Clarvoe's taut adaptation in which a woman has to face her legacy of religious and sexual repression when her grown son comes home to tell her that he has an incurable sexually transmitted disease and asks her to help him die with dignity.

NO GOOD DEED revolves around the interconnecting stories of three troubled heroes, including a Richard Jewell-like security guard; a firefighter who has rescued a toddler from a well; and lonely teen Josh Jaxon, a budding graphic novelist whose "Hellbound Hero" comes to life as his alter ego."In a lot of ways, I want to hold this production up to the producers of SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK and say, 'This is how you put a graphic novel on stage.'" -Talkin' Broadway"Pelfrey has fashioned a bracingly cerebral and nerve-rattling piece." -Backstage"The twenty-something dudes that really like comic books and video games and seeing people get their asses kicked would totally think NO GOOD DEED is the most awesome play of all time." -The LAist

Uncle Sam was a novelties salesman who died one night, alone and broke, in a Pittsburgh hotel. But he was also a larger-than-life figure, a mythic hero, to his nephew - who now seeks to discover his uncle's true story. His quest is a quixotic and picaresque one, involving a seductive nightclub singer who promises to marry Sam if he can locate his ne'er-do-well brother (who absconded with the proceeds from a robbery), and developing into a series of sometimes funny, sometimes hair-raising episodes as the nephew "becomes" his uncle in his youth and journeys to a remote lighthouse, a rather sinister university laboratory, an opium den, the clinic of a Mexican quack, and a very odd miniature golf course - all intriguingly distorted, as though viewed through a funhouse mirror. In the end it is really the landscape of the mind that is explored and illuminated, as the trail leads back to Old Sam and the disquieting knowledge that dreams and reality are, in the final essence, often one and the same, with the "truth" still remaining tantalizingly out of reach."Mr. Jenkin's play is in the first place a loving but rarified pulp-fiction parody, full of ingenious and peculiar turns of language." -The Village Voice"Jenkin's plays are, in a sense, loony detective stories, a pilgrim's progress through thickets of American hype and ignorance." -The New York Daily News"By the end of this imaginative evening, one could say that the play is a journey of self-discovery, a pop art fairy tale, or an investigation into the American psyche." -BackStage"... it's a wonderful piece, astonishingly imaginative and challenging." -The Bergen Record

FIVE OF US deals with the parallel lives of New York tenement dwellers, who live next door to each other but whose paths do not cross until one fateful moment, which spells disaster for them all. One apartment is occupied by Mark, a young writer who churns out pornography while planning the "big novel" he will someday write, and his live-in girlfriend, Lee, an anthropology grad who works as a waitress. Their next-door neighbor is Herman, a mentally deficient messenger who speaks in a language all his own and amuses himself by calling 800 numbers to make hotel reservations he has no intention of keeping. When Lee is offered a chance to join an anthropological expedition to Sri Lanka, Mark is faced with a crisis - the loss of both her companionship and her income. With the connivance of his ex-con buddy, Eddie, a street-smart would-be mercenary, Mark decides to prop up his finances by robbing Herman's apartment, in the misguided belief that the poor eccentric has been hoarding money. But, instead, what they find is the bizarre detritus of a stunted life - a life which is abruptly ended when Herman, coming upon them, is startled into a fatal epileptic fit. Fearful and guilt-ridden, Mark and Eddie try to cover their tracks - but as the play ends it is also clear that no matter how far or fast they flee they will never escape the spectre of the lonely misfit whose pathetic world they have so thoughtlessly and fatally shattered."FIVE OF US is a 10. Jenkin has a real genius for character." -The Hollywood Reporter"... it proves that he not only has a vivid imagination but that he also has an artist's command of his craft." -The New York Times"... a gripping, haunting experience that can't be dismissed lightly." -Drama-Logue"... full of surprises and subversions, so that the expected keeps failing to happen, and the unexpected keeps happening, in new and absurdly ironic ways ... FIVE OF US is several kinds of a good play." -The Village Voice

A brilliantly conceived and highly theatrical experience in absurdist drama, in which the audience is taken on a wild and funny metaphysical journey into the fertile imaginations of the diverse characters whose bizarre stories are deftly interwoven into the fabric of the play. DARK RIDE is comprised of a series of vignettes involving characters who, at first, appear to bear no relation to each other. A mysterious figure gives a scholar an ancient manuscript to translate; a thief steals an enormous jewel; a woman assures us that life is all coincidence; a dream-like waitress serves her customers all manner of thoughts and suggestions but no food. The images are bizarrely funny and provocative and, in time, coalesce into a pattern of driving concerns and obsessions that come into focus when the various characters finally meet at an oculists convention in Mexico City. Phantasmagoric, the play takes us on a journey that, in the final essence, transcends the physical world to explore the inner recesses of the mind."The trip itself, like a spooky show in a carnival tunnel, is full of bright, surprising images, scary and funny." -The Village Voice"... funny, rich, erudite, playful, assured." -Soho News"Few playwrights have Jenkin's skill at theatrical sleight-of-hand ... it supplies an ingenuity which cannot fail to stimulate both the theatre and the theatregoer." -The New York Daily News