About the Play:

On An Average Day has become a favourite of acting teachers for Male Monologues.

On An Average Day is a full-length drama by John Kolvenbach. The two-character play looks at fraternal dysfunction as a pair of siblings, alienated for years, are reunited in the house where their father abandoned them as children years before. They remember their shadowed history; and the mysterious disappearance of their father, in this darkly humorous tale about the nature of redemption.

On An Average Day is about the reunion of two brothers who were abandoned by their father. The action is set in the kitchen of a small house in upstate New York, the home of the acutely lonely Robert, a sociopathic slob. The place is piled high with old newspapers, and something is rotting so horribly in the fridge that the simple task of extracting a beer poses a major health risk. Robert is clearly in desperate trouble, facing jail for throwing a man out of a car. Then his older brother Jack arrives, and seems as neat and controlled as his sibling is wild and unravelled, but nurses his own considerable demons. They piece together a dark shared history, which includes the disappearance of their father when they were young. A West End hit, On an Average Day is a mystery play, a moving psychological drama and a black comedy, a thrill ride full of twists and turns.

On An Average Day was originally presented in 2000 at the Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse during the Toronto Fringe Festival. It premiered in 2002 at the Comedy Theatre (now Harold Pinter Theatre) in the commercial heart of British theatre, the West End of London, starring Woody Harrelson and Kyle MacLachlan. The U. S. Premiere was in 2002 at the Coast Playhouse in West Hollywood. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and is regularly performed in regional, fringe, and college theatre productions.

Cast: 2 male

What people say:

"Kolvenbach's writing combines humour, sadness and the possibility of redemption in a manner that is all his own. We'll be hearing more of him." — Daily Telegraph (UK)

"Four Stars! On the surface, John Kolvenbach's play is a conventional tale of brothers haunted by their upbringing. What matters, though, are the play's twists and eccentricities, and the countless things it leaves unsaid." — The Guardian (UK)

"A riveting emotional duel." — LA Weekly

"Provocative and chilling. A thought-provoking play." — The Hollywood Reporter

"If the New Testament were rewritten for modern times in language that included four-letter words and psychotic outbursts against the inscrutable will of God, the Good Book might read something like John Kolvenbach's On An Average Day. Kolvenbach's characters are both complex and mythic, mixing innocence and world-weariness." — Cape Cod Times

"An emotionally harrowing yet subtly compassionate work, John Kolvenbach's tragicomedy recalls the brutal family-dysfunction dramas of Sam Shepard coupled with the enigmatic subtext of Harold Pinter's works. Meticulously unpeeling the layers of emotional fog surrounding the estranged relationship between two long-separated brothers, the piece evokes the tension of a crafty mystery thriller, though its ultimate payoff is profound emotional resonance." — Backstage

"Like an extended, surrealistic Smothers Brothers routine, John Kolvenbach's engrossing sojourn through sibling angst is highlighted by the brilliantly off-kilter interplay between dysfunctional recluse Bobby and his more socially integrated older brother Jack. On An Average Day offers a searing, often hilarious history of familial disintegration." — Variety

"On An Average Day is an emotionally charged play, monumental in its passion, and mind-boggling in its intensity. You will be left with admiration and wonderment for a play that is beyond awesome." — CurtainUp

About the Playwright:

John Kolvenbach is an American playwright. After graduating from Middlebury College in 1988 he attended Rutgers University graduating with a Masters in Fine Arts degree in 1992. His plays have been performed in the West End of London and all over the world.