About the Play:

Fools is a full-length comedy by Neil Simon. An idealistic teacher attempts through education to free a Ukrainian town from a magic spell that has turned the inhabitants into idiots. Especially recommended for school and contest use.

Fools is a comic fable about an eager young teacher, a beautiful – but dimwitted – girl, several kooky villagers, and an ancient curse. The unknowing hero, master teacher Leon Tolchinsky. is ecstatic. He's landed a terrific teaching job in an idyllic Ukrainian hamlet (still a Russian territory in the late 19th Century). When he arrives he finds people sweeping dust from the stoops back into their houses and people milking upside down to get more cream. The town has been cursed with Chronic Stupidity for 200 years. And it's Leon's job to break the curse! He learns that if he stays over 24 hours and fails to break the curse, he too becomes Stupid. But, he has fallen in love with a girl so Stupid that she has only recently learned how to sit down. Faced with this dilemma, a hysterical tale of stupidity, love, and human nature unfolds in quintessential Neil Simon style.

Fools premiered in 1981 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on Broadway in New York City. With a stationary set, it is a favourite Neil Simon play for high schools, colleges, and community theatres.

Cast: 6 women, 6 men (but some genders can be easily switched)

What people say:

"Anyone who judges high school drama festivals long enough will become familiar with Neil Simon's Fools. Students are easily attracted to the story of a remote Ukrainian village populated entirely by idiots. They love the opportunity to walk around the set with blank looks on their faces, smacking into walls, and giggling stupidly at each others' antics like some sort of 19th century Beavis and Butthead. The people ... have no brains, but a lot of heart. ...Fools works because while we're laughing at them, we're also rooting for them." — Talkin' Broadway

"The brightest, freshest, funniest, wittiest, warmest and happiest to do on Broadway in many a day." — CBS-TV

About the Playwright:

Neil Simon (1927-2018) was America's most prolific playwright. He had dozens of plays and nearly as many major motion pictures produced. He was showered with more Academy and Tony nominations than any other writer, and is the only playwright to have four Broadway productions running simultaneously. His plays have been produced in dozens of languages, and have been blockbuster hits from Beijing to Moscow. His true success, however, is in his unique way of exposing something real in the American spirit.