About the Play:

Women and Wallace has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Male Monologues and Female/Male Scenes.

Women and Wallace is a full-length comedic drama by Jonathan Marc Sherman. The much-lauded play follows the story of a young man named Wallace trying to solve the mystery that has plagued men from the start of time: Women. Women and Wallace is a darkly hilarious romp that will take your audience through a coming-of-age story sure to entertain and enthrall.

Women and Wallace is about a teenager who was traumatized by his mother's suicide when he was just a boy, and the eight women he encounters later in his life. Comprised of a series of brisk, kaleidoscopic scenes, the play begins as Wallace Kirkman, now a handsome young man of eighteen, hurls a ripe tomato at a pretty young woman dressed all in white while proclaiming "I love you." We then move back in time to when Wallace, six years of age, is sent off to school by his caring mother – who jots a note and then slits her throat. Wallace finds her body, a shock which continues to haunt his relationships with the other women who come into his life as he grows up, including his compassionate but clear-sighted grandmother; the girl who swipes his peanut butter and banana sandwich at school and later browbeats him into his first kiss; the psychiatrist who tries to help him exorcise the troubling memories of his mother's suicide; and in particular the fellow student, whose blend of love and self-respect jolts Wallace into the maturity that frees him. All of the characters, in the end, contribute to the mosaic which captures with such eloquence and wit all the fears and joys and uncertainties which mark Wallace's progress towards manhood. Fast moving, and very funny, Women and Wallace is a remarkable first play, written when the author was eighteen, mirroring the events that took place in his life.

Women and Wallace premiered in 1988 on the Playwrights Horizons Mainstage in New York City and won the prestigious Young Playwrights Festival. It then went on to an off-Broadway run, as well as a television adaptation for PBS' American Playhouse. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and has long been a staple of theatre company's seeking works that are a little more quirky and risqué.

Cast: 8 female, 1 male

What people say:

"Women and Wallace is easily the best play the festival has ever presented." — The Christian Science Monitor

"…a deeply felt play with an original and impressive comic edge. Sherman's is indeed a fresh, remarkably mature voice." — New York Daily News

"Women and Wallace is without doubt one of the strongest one-acts to come along in a long time. The play is startling, fresh and wise in its verbal dexterity and its knowledge of characterizations." — Backstage

"…unmistakably the work of a talented writer – examining his feelings, experimenting with language, making psychological pain play on stage." — Village Voice

"…a staple of theater company's across the nation ... it is a very good play. One of the reasons is that the character of Wallace can really showcase the talents of a young actor." — TheaterMania

About the Playwright:

Jonathan Marc Sherman is an American playwright who graduated from Bennington College, and lives in New York City. He is a co-founder with actors Josh Hamilton and Ethan Hawke of the Malaparte theatre company. His plays have been performed at The New Group, Playwrights Horizons, WPA Theater, Los Angeles Theatre Center, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival, as well as in England, Australia, Israel, and Japan.