About the Play:

Sin is a full-length comedy by Wendy MacLeod. A moralistic traffic reporter is forced to contend with the Seven Deadly Sins in the guise of the various people in her life. Like an Ibsen hero she goes through her life throwing the truth in everyone's face, whether they like it or not. Sin is a comically cautionary tale that teaches us perfection isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Sin is set in San Francisco on the eve of the 1989 earthquake. A biting comedy featuring "Avery Bly on High," a helicopter-flying traffic reporter who is trying to keep herself above life's messiness. As she flies across the sky, reporting on the traffic below, she looks down on people – both literally and figuratively. Considering herself above life's tawdry messiness, she's more than a little judgmental about others' imperfections. Avery says, "From the sky, the world is perfect," but on the ground she is surrounded by people who are less than perfect, each of whom represents one of the Seven Deadly Sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. While nobody actually uses the word sin, Avery is quick to point out their flaws. Her boss represents wrath because he is furious all the time. Her roommate, who broke up with her boyfriend, has become a junk food-devouring glutton. Her own husband, from whom she is separated, is a charming but slothful alcoholic. Her co-pilot in the helicopter is filled with envy. Her terminally ill bother, represents pride in Avery's mind. But he is the one who points out her own pride and tells her the obvious: Throwing people's faults and mistakes in their faces is not a good way to make or keep friends. It takes her brother dying to make Avery understand the humanity behind these sinners and discover that pride may be the deadliest sin of them all. And it takes an Act of God, a major earthquake, to bring Avery back down to Earth once and for all.

Sin premiered in 1995 at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, enjoyed and held over run, and was vividly rendered on the New York stage in 1995 at Second Stage Theatre and in 2007 at the Abingdon Theatre. Since then the play has been successfully staged at several professional theatres and performed in college theatre productions as a showcase of student talent.

Cast: 2 female, 6 male

What people say:

"Macleod's quick mind and sharp tongue…create scene after scene of biting humor and sharp insight…devilishly funny." — Chicago Tribune

"At a time when Greed and Sloth have brought moral death to Broadway, this original work could properly be renamed Virtue." — Wall Street Journal

"When a San Francisco earthquake sets off a chain of tragedies in the life of a young helicopter traffic reporter, she is forced to come down from the heights and walk among her sinful brethren. Wendy MacLeod's comedy, a series of vivid, well-acted confrontations, draws on Everyman but reminds us that our in ability to resist the seven deadlies is what makes us human." — The New Yorker

"One of the most beguiling premieres to come out of the Goodman Studio…Sin beguiles audiences with a compelling blend of humor and pathos…." — Chicago Daily Herald

About the Playwright:

Wendy MacLeod is an American playwright. She is Professor of Drama and James Michael playwright-in-residence at her alma mater, Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Best known for Women in Jeopardy! and Slow Food, she is the author of some two dozen plays, many informed by what drama critic Kevin Carr called a "spirit of witty and satirical, female-centric humor."