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The war in Vietnam is over and Brad, an ex-serviceman, lands in L.A. to start a new life. When he winds up trashed in Connie and Linda’s kitchen after a wild night of partying, the three strike a deal for an arrangement that has hilarious and devastating consequences for everyone.
Inspired by 1970s sitcoms, 1950s existentialist comedy, Chekhov and Disco anthems, the play is a terrifying yet amusing look at a culture that likes to amuse itself, even as it teeters on the brink of ruin.
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Seeking (alll roles are available):
BRAD (30s) Ex-Marine. He’s everyone’s best friend, a great listener, lovable, innocent, playful. A male ingénue. He’s a caretaker but he exploits this part of himself to make himself invisible or unnoticed. Hides his sensitivity, but there’s a roiling anguish, a disconsolate pain, under all the layers of sweetness. He is a closeted gay man.
CONNIE (late 20s – 30s) At turns childlike and cynical – but even her cynicism is childlike. Her logic is pretty amazingly loopy, but has a moment-to-moment idiosyncratic sense to it. Has both an amazingly deadpan humor, and, as the play progresses, a capacity for great, raw, emotional depth and vulnerability.
LINDA (30s) The responsible, practical one, but she resents this role. At the same time she won’t relinquish control. Has enormous insecurity and self-loathing, extremely lonely, drinks too much. Clueless about how to work through any of her damage, but fighting for some kind of hope. Her one refuge is disco dancing (yes, disco dancing).
MR. WICKER (60s – 70s) – A gleefully, hyperbolically homophobic and retrograde landlord and (inept) fix-it guy, but he’s got his own oddball flamboyance. He is a Republican war enthusiast, and votary of Traditional American Values. There’s a loneliness and vulnerability under all the bluster, and even a childlike sweetness.
MRS. WICKER (60s – 70s) A Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Virtuosically manic, outsized, out of control but trying to keep it together, she vaults from one extreme to another – rage, anguish, casual conversation, hilarity -- with no transition whatsoever; she’s a hot mess. Deeply unfulfilled in her marriage and life, she looks for solace from Linda and Connie, with diminishing returns. A Durang character trapped in a Lars von Trier film.
TERRY (30s – 40s) – A horny used car salesman with as much depth as a piece of fruit leather; he is kind of hot and is actually even nice. Moonlights as a drug dealer; Brad’s best friend and also secretly his object of desire; not the sharpest knife in the drawer but has a winning innocuous sweetness.
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