Claire has a rare
form of psychogenic amnesia that erases
her memory whenever she goes to sleep. This
morning, like all mornings, she wakes up
a blank slate. Her chipper husband comes
in with a cup of coffee, explains her condition,
hands her a book filled with all sorts of
essential information, and he disappears
into the shower. A limping, lisping, half-blind,
half-deaf man in a ski mask, pops out from
under her bed and claims to be her brother,
there to save her. Claire's info book is
quickly discarded, and she's hustled off
to the country-house of her mother, a recent
stroke victim whose speech has been reduced
to utter gibberish. Claire's journey gets
even more complicated when a dimwitted thug
with a foul-mouthed hand puppet pops up
at a window, and her driven husband and
perpetually stoned son show up with a claustrophobic
lady-cop that they've kidnapped. Every twist
and turn in this fun-house plot brings Claire
closer to revealing her past life and everything
she thought she'd forgotten. It's one harrowing
and hilarious turn after another on this
roller coaster ride through the day of an
amnesiac trying to decipher her fractured
life. This poignant and brutal new comedy
traces one woman's attempt to regain her
memory while surrounded by a curio-cabinet
of alarmingly bizarre characters.
"...heady fun...fresh,
zingy dialogue, which revels in warping
the language of self-help books...Like
the resourceful chef who turns leftovers
into
haute cuisine, Mr. Lindsay-Abaire blends
clichéd ingredients into something savory
and distinctive...[a] dark, sweet and
thoroughly
engaging comedy." NY Times.
"...an antically
zany new play..." Variety.
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2002-2003 Events
