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.