About the Play:

Things Being What They Are is a full-length comedy by Wendy MacLeod. Up-and-coming Bill has just moved to a new city and into a new condo, and is waiting for the arrival of his wife. He gets an unexpected visit from Jack, his brash, irreverent neighbour who drops by and simply will not leave. Things Being What They Are is an off-beat comedy about two regular guys form an unlikely bond as they debate the meaning of marriage, commitment, love and mortality.

Things Being What They Are tells the story of Bill, who is anxiously awaiting the arrival of his furniture and his (unfaithful) wife at their new condo. He is visited by Jack, a divorced neighbour who is eager to share his wisdom about women, love and the loneliness of life after marriage. What follows is a sharp comedy about the lives we dream of having versus the lives we end up living. At first Jack appears to be a nightmare neighbour – intrusive, needy, boorish – but gradually Bill's perception of his new "friend" deepens. While it's true that Jack managed to lose his wife's trust and his children's love, these two regular guys form an unlikely bond as Bill discovers that Jack is wrestling with circumstances that would challenge the best of us. Things Being What They Are is a funny and wistful exploration of love, loss, masculinity, and the needs that bring people together and drive them apart.

Things Being What They Are premiered in 2003 at the Seattle Repertory Theatre and was then seen at Steppenwolf in Chicago in 2003 where its sold-out run was extended twice before being produced in regional theatres across the US, from Georgia to Idaho and beyond.

Cast: 2 male

What people say:

"Despite (or maybe it's because of) its origin in a female mind, this funny, charming, and rather moving little sleeper of a play from Wendy MacLeod probes the vulnerabilities of heterosexual, middle-class, decaying maleness with…good humor, affection and incisive accuracy." — Chicago Tribune

"Middle-aged male angst isn't a new subject for contemporary drama, but it's handled with refreshing subtlety and wit in this serious comedy…sophisticated, with wry observations and literary references…doesn't lose its black wit." — Variety

"MacLeod's script is by turns acid and tender, and funny in a way that…proceeds powerfully from character and context." — Chicago Reader

"Wendy MacLeod is an expert at whipping moods, characters and events around in all sorts of intriguing ways." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"…truly funny and finally tragic…This is a wonderfully intimate play that doesn't pummel audiences with emotion, but rather, serves it up subtly through the veil of youthful dreams derailed." — Sag Harbor Express

"She's not only written a probing exploration of the things that matter, but created a marvelously complex and satisfying tour de force for two actors." — Southampton Press

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 the critically acclaimed Women in Jeopardy!, 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."