About the Play:

Last Train to Nibroc has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues, Male Monologues, and Female/Male Scenes.

Last Train to Nibroc is a full-length drama by Arlene Hutton. A man and a woman with little in common meet on a cross-country train, and he decides to follow her home to Kentucky, changing both their lives forever. The Last Train to Nibroc is a two-hander about an unpredictable romance and the places it can go.

Last Train to Nibroc is a funny, touching romance of two people searching for happiness. It is Christmas, 1940, and on a long train journey from California to Chicago, Raleigh (an easygoing young man in uniform) sits next to May (an uptight young woman) and so begins a timeless old-fashioned story. They discover that they come from neighbouring small towns in rural Kentucky: he, from a hard-knock poor family; she, from the local social aristocracy. She has just broken up with her boyfriend, a fighter pilot, and dreams of adventure as a missionary, while he is disappointed at being rejected from the Air Force because of epilepsy, and dreams of being a writer. They are inclined to rub each other up the wrong way, yet are clearly attracted to each other. He decides to change trains for Kentucky, promising to take May to the next Nibroc Festival. Scene Two finds May and Raleigh at the festival, but a year and half later. Unfit for war, and needing to support his parents, Raleigh has been working in a Detroit factory. May is teaching school and has a new man in her life – a preacher. When Raleigh confronts her, May admits her prejudices against his family. It is not until the following spring as they sit on May's front porch, watching a lumberyard fire in the distance, that the two are finally able to resolve their differences and discover the depth of their feelings. May accepts Raleigh's sudden proposal to elope, as the sky grows red like a sunrise.

Last Train to Nibroc was first showcased at the New York Fringe Festival and transferred to an Off-Broadway premiere in 1999 at the 78th Street Theater Lab in New York City and picked up a nomination for Best Play from the New York Drama League. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops, was a hit at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and has been performed in more than 300 regional theatre productions.

Cast: 1 female, 1 male

What people say:

"A deft two-hander with a simple set, it's a popular choice for showcases and scene study, and it's easy to see why ... Hutton beautifully captures the feeling of the time and place, and the writing is by turns funny and heartbreaking." — Backstage

"Last Train to Nibroc is unashamedly nostalgic: two young people get on to a train and start talking, and what follows surprises no one, and yet is full of revelation. You want to grab certain fringe directors from off the street and send them to see it, saying, 'That's dialogue, that's character, pay attention'." — The Guardian

"…a gently charming little play, reminiscent of Thornton Wilder in its look at rustic Americans who are to be treasured for their simplicity and directness…." — Associated Press

"You could easily enjoy another few hours of this." — New York Times

"…A blissfully sweet romantic play quite unlike the typical fare offered in theatres these days." — NYTheatre

"It is beautifully written…Every line is a heartbeat." — Financial Times

About the Playwright:

Arlene Hutton (the pseudonym of actor-director Beth Lincks) is an American playwright, theatre artist and teacher. She is best known for Last Train to Nibroc, the first FringeNYC production to transfer Off-Broadway. Her full-length plays have been presented Off- and Off-off Broadway, regionally, in London and throughout the world, including the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.