Kindness
by Adam Rapp

Name: Kindness
Brand: Adam Rapp
SKU: 9780573696800
Rating: 4 (35 reviews)

Highlights

Female

Male

120 minsPresent DayRole(s) for Black Actor(s)Interior SetContemporary Costumes/Street ClothesComedy

What readers are saying

Readers find the play to be a deeply unsettling and intriguing black comedy, highlighting the enigmatic nature of its characters and their hidden intentions. While some feel it lacks the depth of heavier themes, the suspense keeps the audience engaged throughout.

Intriguing character dynamicsEngaging suspenseEffective black comedyLacks heavy themes

Synopsis

An ailing mother and her teenaged son flee Illinois and a crumbling marriage for the relative calm and safety of a midtown Manhattan hotel.

Mom holds tickets to a popular musical about love among bohemians.

Her son isn't interested, so Mom takes the kindly cabdriver instead, while the boy entertains a visitor from down the hall, an enigmatic, potentially dangerous young woman.

Kindness is a play about the possibility of sympathy in a harsh world and the meaning of mercy in the face of devastating circumstances.

Press Reviews

"Rapp has raised some provocative questions about the prickly mother/son relationship he has drawn in such detail."
— Variety

"Adam Rapp can write dense, tense, funny dialogue."
— The New York Times

Characters

Character	Gender	Age	Description
Maryanne late forties, Dennis' mother	female	—	late forties, Dennis' mother
Herman African American, mid fifties	—	—	African American, mid fifties
Frances a young woman	female	—	a young woman
Dennis 17	—	—	17