Desire – Six One-Act Plays

The Plays are ...

ATTACK OF THE GIANT TENT WORMS ~ Elizabeth Egloff - M1,F1

Billy and Clara are nearing the end of their summer vacation on Cape Cod, as their cottage is being devoured by billions of tent-worms. Worse, Billy has just gotten word from his oncologist that there are no more treatment options for his brain cancer. A darkly humorous exploration of which is more terrifying: bugs or death?

DESIRE QUENCHED BY TOUCH ~ Marcus Gardley - M3

In 1950s New Orleans, a black masseur must account for the disappearance of his favorite white customer. People don't just vanish inside massage parlors

THE FIELD OF BLUE CHILDREN ~ Rebecca Gilman - M3,F4

Everything in Layley's life is going according to plan. She belongs to the best sorority at her university and has a devoted boyfriend who could easily become a devoted husband. But Layley suspects that there is more to life than stifling conformity. So she signs up for a poetry class in the hopes of expressing herself. There she meets Dylan, a sensitive poet with whom she enjoys a night of passion that opens up a truly revolutionary prospect: living a life of her own

ORIFLAMME. Oriflamme (noun) ~ David Grimm - M1,F1

A red or scarlet banner; a knight's standard; a rallying principle Sickly Anna Kimball, on her final day, reaches out for, and becomes, all of these

YOU LIED TO ME ABOUT CENTRALIA ~ John Guare - M1,F1

Jim, the Gentleman Caller, leaves the Wingfields' disastrous dinner party to meet his fiancée Betty's train. The evening won't turn out the way either of them expected

THE RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN A VIOLIN CASE AND A COFFIN ~ Beth Henley - M2,F4

Tom and his sister Roe's childhood comes to a painful end when Richard Miles, who moves in light, arrives in town with his violin in a case

REVIEWS

"You can hear Tennessee Williams's dramatis personae echoing through this evening of one-acts" ~ New Yorker

"[DESIRE] is rife with agonized sexual longing, trembling Southern belles and spasms of violence Most American playwrights working today owe some debt to Williams; it's a pleasure, even inspiring, to see six give back" ~ Time Out NY