Shopping Cart
Your cart is empty.

        We accept PayPal, Visa & Mastercard
        through our secure checkout.

 

Mastercard                              

 

With and Without

With and Without
Your Price: $18.95 CDN
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

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.

Related Products

Routed
Your Price: $15.95 CDN
Routed
Jeffrey Sweet
The Action Against Sol Schumann
Your Price: $18.95 CDN
The Action Against Sol Schumann
Jeffrey Sweet
Porch
Your Price: $15.95 CDN
Porch
Jeffrey Sweet
The Value of Names
Your Price: $18.95 CDN
The Value of Names
Jeffrey Sweet
Responsible Parties
Your Price: $18.99 CDN
Responsible Parties
Jeffrey Sweet
Ties
Your Price: $18.95 CDN
Ties
Jeffrey Sweet
Stops Along the Way
Your Price: $15.95 CDN
Stops Along the Way
Jeffrey Sweet