Dead Movement
by
John Patrick Bray
THE STORY: Welcome to the Rosendale Hotel where guests can stay a night, a week, a month, or a lifetime. Enter Patrick, a harmonica-playing stranger who meets local inhabitants such as Joe Joe, a mechanic and tow-truck operator with dreams of being a car salesman; a Resident that insists they are just drinking tea, nothing stronger; and Rachel, the “Pastel Goth” concierge whose only pleasures in life come from watching the various residents torture themselves as if she were watching a reality show. There’s also a wolf circling outside, a suitcase full of money (or is it just bones?), and transformations that seem to happen by bargaining with the Universe. Described by an audience member as an “absurdist Hot L Baltimore,” Dead Movement is the hauntingly humorous story of people who want to disappear, and others who want to be seen; both are desperate impulses which, when followed, lead to funny, complicated, uncanny results.
Dead Movement was a Semifinalist for the Third Annual New Comedies Festival at B Street Theatre.
Cast Size: 2M 1W 1M or W
Running Time:90 minutes
Royalty: $75 per performance
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Bray’s Dead Movement starts off like a quirky comedic commentary on life, and then Rod Serling enters the hotel (not literally, but when you read the play you’ll understand). Set in a hotel that could as easily be Southern Gothic or haunted New England, the residents all desperately want to be someone – or something – else. To be seen – or to be unseen. To be loved. Who hasn’t wanted to sink into the ground and disappear sometimes? Who hasn’t wanted to be noticed at other times? This quirky little four-hander, with it’s witty dialogue and weird situations, is like a walk in the fog. You’re never sure when you crossed a border into another world – you just suddenly realize you have. Funny, thought-provoking – and thoroughly enjoyable.
A seedy small-town hotel where people go to escape or to disappear; a cast of unique and memorable characters; a uneasy atmosphere; and a twist at the end that is well prepared but still surprising–another terrific play by John Patrick Bray.
Review Dead Movement.