We accept PayPal, Visa & Mastercard
through our secure checkout.
|
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea
|
Biz Staff Pick!
Author: John Patrick Shanley Publisher: Dramatists Play Service Format: Softcover # of Pages: 40 Pub. Date: 1984 ISBN-10: 0822202697 ISBN-13: 9780822202691 Cast Size: 1 female, 1 male
|
About
the Play:
Danny and the
Deep Blue Sea has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues, Male Monologues, and Female/Male Scenes.
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea is a full length dramatic
comedy by John Patrick Shanley. This two-person
play finds complete
strangers meeting
in a bar. The title character Danny and Roberta strike up a haltingly bitter conversation about the
demons that unite and divide them. The entire play takes place in one night. Danny and the Deep Blue Sea
is a finely crafted modern
classic that
offers
actors a chance to shine as emotionally-volatile individuals
navigating raw intimacy.
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea is an explosive, deeply
affecting study of alienation and the redemptive power of love. The
setting is a rundown bar in the Bronx, where two of society's
rejects, Danny and Roberta, strike up a conversation over
their beer. He is a brooding, self-loathing young man who resorts
more to violence than reason. She is a divorced, guilt-ridden young
woman whose troubled teenage son is now being cared for by her
parents. Danny, whose fellow truck drivers call him "the
animal," seems incapable of tender emotion, while Roberta,
fighting her own demons,
reveals to Danny how difficult her past has been. She
is still haunted by the memory of an ugly sexual incident involving
her father, and is distrustful of men in general. And yet, as their
initial reserve begins to fade, and they decide to spend the night
together, the possibility of a genuine and meaningful relationship
begins to emerge – the first for both of them. In the end there are
no facile, easy answers, but thanks to the playwright's skill and
compassion, both characters are able to probe within themselves to
find an exorcism and forgiveness that, while painfully achieved,
offers the hope of a future touched, at last, with more than the
bitterness and loneliness that had been their lot before their
fateful meeting. If you enjoy sinking your teeth into the
psychology of a character with a dark past, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea is the play is for you! There are three strong
monologues and three female/male
scenes in the piece.
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea premiered in 1984 at
the famed Actors Theatre of Louisville as part of the annual Festival
of New American Plays, and
then played Off-Broadway later that year at Circle in the Square
Downtown. The play has
become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and
workshops and is regularly performed in repertory, college, and
community theatre productions.
Cast: 1 female, 1 male
What people say:
"A dark and dirty riposte to
meet-cute Hollywood romances about lovable losers finding each other,
John Patrick Shanley's pithy 1984 breakthrough
play, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, bleeds like
the fresh fight scars of its angry protagonist." — Variety
"…a wrenching love story
that swept through the downtown Circle in the Square last night like
a tidal wave." — New York Daily News
"…the play is the equivalent
of sitting at ringside watching a prize fight that concludes in a
loving embrace." — New York Times
"…a funny, frightening,
hypnotically fascinating evening of theatre…." —
Drama-Logue
About the Playwright:
John Patrick Shanley is an American playwright,
screenwriter, and director. Shanley has written some two dozen
off-Broadway plays since the 1970s, but he is best known for Doubt,
which won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award. He has also written
extensively for TV and film, and his credits include the teleplay for
Live from Baghdad and screenplays for Five Corners and
Moonstruck, for which he won an Academy Award for original
screenplay.
|
|
|
|