About the Play:

Lake Street Extension is a full-length drama by Lee Blessing. A young political refugee from El Salvador is given sanctuary in a basement room previously occupied by his protector's prodigal son. The son, who'd run away after being molested, suddenly returns. Now he wants what's his.

Lake Street Extension is intense three-man drama. The 19-year-old runaway son of a middle-aged recovering alcoholic makes an unannounced visit home – only to find that his born-again father is housing a young refugee on behalf of his church. Not only has the refugee moved in, but he's been given the son's room and is sleeping in his bed. As this explosive situation tests the already strained father-son relationship, we discover that the son is working as a male prostitute and was sexually abused on a regular basis by his average, working-class father. Throw in a mysterious young refugee from the civil war in El Salvador, and the mix becomes deadly in this play rife with recriminations, secrets, seductions, hypocrisy, confessions and above all the desperate need of redemption and atonement. As played out through the images of an unbalanced father, his deeply wounded son and the young refugee, Lee Blessing unflinchingly delves into the psyche of fathers and sons and patriarchal society in and of itself.

Lake Street Extension premiered in 1992 at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. Since then the play has been successfully staged off Broadway at Signature Theater and several other professional theatres across the US.

Cast: 3 male

What people say:

"…A finely crafted and haunting work that merits further production. The main strength of the [play] is its unusual, provocative fusing of psychological and political themes … It is ideal for studios and second stages." — Variety

"The 90 taut minutes strip away layers of secrets and suggest a link between the men's sins — a dependence on the propensity of bourgeois Americans to look away from ugly facts rather than decry them." — Time Magazine

"Drawing a parallel between the abuse a father inflicts on his son and the abuse a fascist government inflicts on its people, Blessing shows how the personal is political without ever becoming preachy. ...His portrayal of sexual abuse is fair and accurate, not judgmental." — Chicago Reader

About the Playwright:

Lee Blessing is an American playwright who remained in his hometown of Minneapolis working in regional theater before relocating to New York when he was in his forties. The author of over twenty plays and screenplays, he been nominated for Tony and Olivier Awards as well as the Pulitzer Prize. He is professor emeritus at Rutgers University, where for a dozen years he headed the Graduate Playwriting Program of Mason Gross School of the Arts.