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With and Without
With and Without
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Author: Jeffrey Sweet Publisher: Dramatists Play Service (cover may change) Format: Softcover # of Pages: 68 Pub. Date: 1997 Edition: Acting ISBN-10: 0822215586 ISBN-13: 9780822215585 Cast Size: 2 female, 2 male
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About
the Play:
With and Without is a
full-length comedy by Jeffrey Sweet. It should be a week full
of wine, wit and relaxation. However Jill's husband doesn't show up
at a lakeside vacation house and instead of a holiday, the happily
married Mark and Shelly are offered an intimate view of their
friend's erratic behaviour as she tries to cope. The lake is serene
but in the house old passions bubble to the surface in Jeffrey
Sweet's steamy story about the limits of friendship and marriage.
With and Without is an
adult comedy about sex and friendship – with and without! Shelly
and Mark have rented a lake-side house for a week to relax. They are
sharing the house with Jill, who waits to be joined by her husband,
Russ. The fact that Russ does not show, and does not call or return
calls, foreshadows a rough week. Jill and Russ are having marital
problems and Shelly and Mark are feeling put in the middle. The
situation is complicated by the fact that Jill and Mark were once a
couple and Shelly introduced her to Russ. Do they advise, make a
call, or lie about who is where? Because of the connections to their
old friends, feelings of guilt and obligation prevail, whether real
or imagined. While they wait for Russ, Jill mulls over saving or
discarding her marriage when she meets Glen, a recently divorced
father, and invites him back to the house for a one night stand. But
Mark hears their conversation, intervenes and proceeds to tell Jill
she's about to make a mistake. Jill doesn't want anyone to tell her
what to do, but while she and Mark argue, Glen drives away. Furious
at Mark for causing Glen to leave, Jill decks him and goes after
Glen. The next morning, when Jill returns, Shelly gives her a piece
of her mind. The two make up, then Shelly tells Jill that her husband
called to say he's on his way up after all, full of apologies. But
now Mark looms as a possible obstacle, and for Shelly and Mark,
finally the issue of how to deal with their friends reveals fault
lines in their own marriage. What compromises are we willing to make
with the truth to keep even the strongest relationships from coming
apart?
With and Without was
developed with improv techniques in 1994 in a workshop production at
Frog Pond Theater in Upper Jay, New York. It premiered in 1995 at
Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago. Since
then the play opened
off Broadway in 1998 at The
78th Street Theatre in
New York City and has been
performed in regional repertory, college, and community theatre
productions.
Cast: 2 female, 2 male
What
people say:
"…solid,
craftsmanlike playwriting at its finest. Beautifully written."
— Variety
"[A]
warm, wise comedy. So refreshing." — Chicago Tribune
"With
and Without is superbly well-wrought. All about language,
limits and responsibility, Sweet's play sparkles with smart irony."
— Houston Press
"It's
rare to witness a play in which everything works so naturally and
inevitably. The evening is just a glory from its first moment to the
last." — Copley News Service
"Savvy
playwright Jeffrey Sweet handles this steamy
story and the situational ethics with maturity and wisdom. Sensitive
and sage." — Chicago Reader
About the Playwright:
Jeffrey Sweet is an
American writer, journalist, theatre historian, and teacher. He
divides his time between New York and Chicago, where he has been
constant presence since the beginning of that city's theatrical
renaissance in the 1970s. His plays have been presented off-Broadway,
internationally, and in a variety of regional and developmental
theatres. A popular teacher and author of many newspaper and magazine
articles, he currently teaches at Wagner College, and has taught or
guest lectured at dozens of universities and professional schools.
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