Cost Of Living
by Martyna Majok

Name: Cost Of Living
Brand: Martyna Majok
SKU: 9780822236542
Rating: 4.15 (1009 reviews)

Broadway Off-Broadway

Cost Of Living Book Cover — Cost Of Living Cover

Highlights

Small Cast

Female

Male

105 mins Present Day Multicultural Casting Unit Set/Multiple Settings Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes American

Awards & Recognition

Lucille Lortel Award Outer Critics Circle Pulitzer Prize Tony Award

Winner! 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama Co-winner! 2018 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play Nominee: Five 2023 Tony Awards, including Best Play Nominee: Four 2018 Outer Critics Circle Awards, including for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play

Synopsis

Eddie, an unemployed truck driver, reunites with his ex-wife Ani after she suffers a devastating accident.

John, a brilliant and witty doctoral student, hires overworked Jess as a caregiver.

As their lives intersect, Majok’s play delves into the chasm between abundance and need and explores the space where bodies—abled and disabled—meet each other.

Press Reviews

"Slams the door on uplifting stereotypes… Tremendous emotion flows around the impediments Majok has placed in the characters’ paths… In both of [the play’s] stories, the biggest handicaps are the universal ones: fear and disconnection…Immensely haunting… [Majok] is exquisitely attuned to the many varieties of alienation hiding in plain sight in America.” – The New York Times“Provides a piercing look at the obstacles faced by disabled people and, more importantly, the human condition in general… The characters, dialogue and situations resonate with emotional truth about loneliness, financial desperation and the vulnerability of disabled people forced to rely on others to assist them with basic human needs.” – The Hollywood Reporter“A deeply human depiction of life with disability… [The play] doesn’t condescend to any of the characters. Ani and John may be in wheelchairs, but that’s the least interesting thing about them in Majok’s script… Majok mines their senses of humor, diverse person"
— TheaterMania

Characters

Character	Gender	Age	Description
Ani Early 40s. Female. Pronounced “Ah-nee.”	female	40s	Early 40s. Female. Pronounced “Ah-nee.”
Jess Mid-20s. female.	female	20s	Mid-20s. female.
John Mid-20s. Male. Please cast disabled actors in the roles of John and Ani. Please assemble a cast that looks like North Jersey and its beautiful diversity. In the prologue, Ani’s full name can be Ania Lucja Skowronska-Torres or Ani Luz Hernandez-Torres or Ani Li-Torres or Ānanda Singh-Torres, amongst many options. Ani’s full name should be chosen to suit the actress playing her. Also in the prologue, Na zdrowie can be replaced with Salud, etc., to suit the actress playing Ani. In scene eight, the phone call should be translated into a non-English language to suit the actress playing Jess. John has a speech pattern that manifests itself in a kind of halted way of speaking. This is due to the vocal tension of his cerebral palsy. The breaks and spacing in his lines are meant to simulate that halting rather than to indicate any sort of poetic recitation.	female	20s	Mid-20s. Male. Please cast disabled actors in the roles of John and Ani. Please assemble a cast that looks like North Jersey and its beautiful diversity. In the prologue, Ani’s full name can be Ania Lucja Skowronska-Torres or Ani Luz Hernandez-Torres or Ani Li-Torres or Ānanda Singh-Torres, amongst many options. Ani’s full name should be chosen to suit the actress playing her. Also in the prologue, Na zdrowie can be replaced with Salud, etc., to suit the actress playing Ani. In scene eight, the phone call should be translated into a non-English language to suit the actress playing Jess. John has a speech pattern that manifests itself in a kind of halted way of speaking. This is due to the vocal tension of his cerebral palsy. The breaks and spacing in his lines are meant to simulate that halting rather than to indicate any sort of poetic recitation.
Eddie Late 40s. Male.	male	40s	Late 40s. Male.