About the Play:

Cabin 12 is a one-act drama by John Bishop. A near textbook case of the well-made short play, Cabin 12 is a powerful and affecting script that examines the tension and grief of a father and son who have come to a strange town to arrange for the burial of their son and brother, a young truck driver who has been killed in a highway accident. As they talk about him, and his life, they are forced to face not only his death, but each other.

Cabin 12 is a powerful story of a father, in his 60s and his son, in his 30s, who must find a way to communicate in their time of grief and transform their pain into love. The place is a motel in a small Virginia town, where a father and son have come to make funeral arrangements for for a younger son. He was a truck driver, formerly a star high school athlete, who was killed when his rig jackknifed on the highway in the Appalachian Mountains. As they talk about him, and his life, the possibility that perhaps his death was not accidental at all begins to emerge. Gradually the tension between the two men builds, interrupted at one point by an explosive confrontation with a noisy couple in the next room and while they are united in their grief the gap of communication between them, their differing perception of the dead son and brother, is increasingly evident. In the end we know that the death was not an accident but an escape – fleeing from the disappointment and failure which still infuse the lives of the family left behind.

Cabin 12 premiered in 1978 at Sheridan Square Playhouse by the acclaimed off-Broadway Circle Repertory Company in New York City and was included in volumes of Best Short Plays. It is an ideal choice for one-act festivals and has been performed in college theatre productions as a showcase of student talent.

Cast: 1 female, 3 male

What people say:

"…spare, clean, expressive writing...." — New York Post

"…the drama leapt vividly and gracefully into life." — New York Times

"…a moving one act play." — Village Voice

"…tense and meaningful… As the drama unfolds it becomes more and more engrossing…." — New York Post

About the Playwright:

John Bishop (1929-2006) was an American playwright and screenwriter. When Marshall W. Mason, founder of the acclaimed Off-Broadway Circle Repertory Company, saw a performance of The Trip Back Down, he invited John Bishop to become a member as both a writer and director. Circle Rep would become his artistic home for nearly 20 years, producing many of his plays. He later founded the Circle West theater company in Los Angeles. He also used his knowledge of and interest in male behaviour and police procedures to do rewrites on the big-budget thrillers Sliver, Primal Fear, Clear and Present Danger, and Beverly Hills Cop III.