About the Play:

The Mighty Gents has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues.

The Mighty Gents is a full-length drama by Richard Wesley. Led by their ringleader, Frankie, The Mighty Gents were violent street toughs during the mid-to-late 1960s who drove out a rival gang from a central Newark neighbourhood and then reigned as the unchallenged kings of their turf with all the attendant adulation and respect. The play depicts the gang members in their 30s and left with only the recollections of their earlier success.

The Mighty Gents is the story of aging black gang members who were once proud, feared, and sure of the promise of the future. Ten years before the time of the play The Mighty Gents street gang had conquered their rival gang, the Zombies, and ruled the Central Ward of Newark. But now, in their 30s, the glory years are gone, and the few Gents who still acknowledge their leader, Frankie, are mired in slum defeatism and a sense of nowhere to go. Unemployed and bitter, they hang around street corners guzzling wine and cracking jokes and deriding the two characters who symbolize what are, in truth, the only alternatives really left to them: the drunken derelict, Zeke, and the flashy small-time racketeer, Essex Braxton, who achieved financial success through loan sharking and prostitution after leaving the gang. In a desperate attempt to resurrect the glory days of The Mighty Gents, Frankie takes his men on one final raid – the robbery (and accidental murder) of Braxton. But, in the electrifying conclusion of the play, their brief victory turns to ashes and ends in the destruction of Frankie, brought about, ironically, by the despised and rejected Zeke. Richard Wesley's arresting, moving play mines the desolation and desperation of a once-prolific gang to lyrically indict how society entraps black youth.

The Mighty Gents premiered in 1977 at the Manhattan Theatre Club under its original title The Last Street Play, and won the Audelco Award for best play. It opened in 1978 on Broadway at the Ambassador Theatre, with cast members Morgan Freeman, Howard Rollins, Jr., Dorian Harewood and Starletta Dupois, now well-known award-winning/nominated actors. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and has been performed in regional and college theatre productions.

Cast: 1 female, 7 male

What people say:

"This harrowing and unforgettable drama marks the Broadway debut of one of America's finest young playwrights." — Cue Magazine

"A fascinating play…It knows no color — it is just about people who have seen the dawn go down like sunset." — New York Post

"…a playwright of sensitivity and with insights into humankind that transcend color." — New York Daily News

"…a vivid and sobering drama, passionately written and eloquently acted." — Variety

About the Playwright:

Richard Wesley is an African American playwright, and screenwriter for television and cinema. He is an Associate Professor in Playwriting and Screenwriting at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts where he is currently the Chair of the Department of Dramatic Writing.