Off the Cliff
1 m, 2 w approximate running time 1 hour 30 minutes
Thia play is set at a convenience store in Provincetown, similar to one where I worked a few summers for extra money. The pay wasn’t great but it was a welcome break from the solitary business of writing and I enjoyed the social interaction with all the town characters. We catered to nearly every vice imaginable: cigarettes, lottery, porn, sodas, caffeine drinks, candy and condoms. In the middle of this is Gwen, an unusually centered character with tempered needs. At 45, she’s still a virgin; she values her solitude and doesn’t understand why everyone has to have “sex, sex, sex, all the time.” Then temptation shows up.
A play about the nature of desire in a utopian economy that makes it its business to endlessly manufacture temptations and artificial needs. |
I took a working scene of this play to a workshop at the Lark where John Guare - who happened to be presiding that day - dismissed it by saying: “it’s boring.” Made me laugh.
Productions - Readings - Awards
Provincetown Theater Company - first public reading - March 4, 2006