About the Play:

Demon Wine is a full-length drama by Thomas Babe. A jobless blue collar man is drawn into the underworld and becomes a hit man. Demon Wine is a unique and truly original work which treats time and place in a brilliantly theatrical manner in order to point up some very simple and sobering, truths.

Demon Wine is tale of the rise and fall of underworld hit man. Warren 'Jimmie' Pierce, a salesman who loved his work, is thrown for a loop when he loses his job and seeks solace in bourbon. Jimmie, who is full of self-deluding swagger about his sense of dedication, and is, perhaps, not too bright, is grateful when his friend Curly offers him a job working for his father, Vinnie – even though his prospective employer turns out to be a loan-sharking mobster. Put to work collecting debts and performing other unsavoury tasks, Jimmie, eager as ever to satisfy his boss, is eventually jailed on a murder rap, but bargains his way to freedom by agreeing (secretly) to inform on his associates. But as Jimmie moves up in the mob hierarchy, the more his anguish and longing for respectability increase, exacerbated by the defection of his friend Curly (who falls into disfavour with his father and takes a lowly job in a diner); the guilt he feels at murdering a derelict (a former friend who happened to owe money to Vinnie); and the disaffection of his daughter, Wanda (who loves to fish, but is always hooking on to painful and embarrassing truths). Almost surreal in concept and execution, the play treats these sometimes chilling incidents in heightened, cartoonish style, with characters being stabbed or thrown from rooftops only to reappear later, and with Vinnie's henchmen synchronized in dress and gesture. But, in the end, the message of the play emerges with startling clarity; true morality, as opposed to the abstract notions droned from pulpits, is something which should infuse our lives on a daily basis, and within the confines of individual choice and responsibility.

Demon Wine premiered in 1989 at the Los Angeles Theater Center, highlighted by L.A. stage debut of singer-songwriter Tom Waits whose performance as "Curly" was hailed by critics and attended by such heavies as Jack Nicholson and Sean Penn. Since then the play has been produced at professional theatres in the US.

Cast: 2 female, 6 male

What people say:

"…the play sneaks around from behind and becomes startling in its oblique power." — Variety

"Babe is good at wrapping his medium around his message, creating a real entertainment whose layers must be peeled if one is to find its heart." — The Los Angeles Times

About the Playwright:

Thomas Babe (1941-2000) was an American playwright who achieved a cult status with uncompromising studies of human relationships that provided rich roles for actors. He was educated at Harvard College, Cambridge University, and Yale University Law School. He began writing for the theatre in the 1960s and was one of Joseph Papp's most prolific resident playwrights at the New York Shakespeare Festival. His wide-ranging plays have been performed in many other theaters throughout the United States and in Canada, England, Ireland, Germany and Holland. In his later years, he taught playwriting at New York University.