About the Play:

The Lyons has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Male Monologues and Male/Male Scenes.

The Lyons is a full-length darkly humorous family drama by Nicky Silver. The Lyons family is grappling with the impending death of its patriarch. When indomitable matriarch Rita, a son in a dubious relationship, a daughter barely keeping her head above water gather to say goodbye, they learn that despite being a family, each of them is utterly isolated. Afraid of closeness and afraid of solitude, they are propelled into foreign territory – human connection.

The Lyons starts in a hospital room. As Ben Lyons lies dying, his wife of forty years, Rita, flips through decorating magazines, planning a living room make-over. "I know you won't actually be there to enjoy it, but I'd like to think you'd like it." It's clear Ben and Rita have been at war for many years, and that Ben's impending demise has brought no relief. When they're joined by their children, Lisa and Curtis, all efforts at a pleasant visit or a sentimental goodbye to the dying patriarch are soon abandoned. Terrible secrets and vicious accusations replace sentimental memories. In Act Two we follow Curtis. His desperate attempt to make a new connection ends so disastrously that the remaining Lyons are reunited at the hospital. We watch as each of them take the first tentative steps toward new human connection. This intimate and frightening examination of how we cope with loneliness and disappointment delighted audiences on Broadway.

The Lyons premiered in 2011 Off-Broadway at The Vineyard Theatre and ttransferred to Broadway at the Cort Theatre in 2012, earning a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Play. This scathingly funny hit marked the Broadway debut of a Nicky Silver play. It opened in London at the Menier Chocolate Factory in 2013. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and been performed in regional, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 3 female, 3 male

What people say:

"Hilariously frank, clear-sighted, compassionate and forgiving…laughter that rises in close and regular waves…Sure, from a distance the title characters of The Lyons… are hilarious as they kick the ego out of one another. But look at them close – no, closer – and you're likely to find an intimate mirror of your own frightened self…Welcome to Broadway at last, Mr. Silver. And might I add that that this cozy-but-nasty family portrait is just the right vehicle to bring you here?" — New York Times

"Silver's humor is mordant, dark and rich. He's a writer who knows all too well the unsaid hurt that can infect families." — Associated Press

"Black-comedy perfection." — Hollywood Reporter

"Silver's in top form… As comedy about death, The Lyons isn't trying to make a case for freshness or formal innovation. It's simply trying tell a funny, furious little tale of family annihilation with honesty, savagery, and humanity, a story about how we all, ultimately, pick out our own urns. It succeeds marvelously." — New York Magazine

"Smart and funny and moving." — New York Observer

"Comedy nirvana... satisfyingly mean and funny." — The New York Post

About the Playwright:

Nicky Silver is an award-winning American playwright. He exploded onto the American theatre scene in October of 1993, with the off-Broadway opening of his play Pterodactyls (Oppenheimer Award, Kesselring Award, Drama Desk nomination, Outer Critic's Circle nomination). His plays have been produced extensively in New York City as well as across Europe and as far away as South Korea (where The Lyons was called Happy Happy Family).