Evanston Salt Costs Climbing
by Will Arbery

Name: Evanston Salt Costs Climbing
Brand: Will Arbery
SKU: 9780573710667
Rating: 3.74 (39 reviews)

Off-Broadway

Evanston Salt Costs Climbing Book Cover — Evanston Salt Costs Climbing Cover

Highlights

Female

Male

90 mins Present Day Unit Set/Multiple Settings Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes

Synopsis

Winters keep getting worse in Evanston, IL, where salt truck drivers Peter and Basil battle the ice and snow and pass the time with jokes and stories.

But what’s with this creeping sense of dread?

Is it because their boss Maiworm has noble visions of new green technology that would make their jobs obsolete?

Or is there a more terrifying warning calling out from under these roads?

At least they have each other, right?

Pulitzer Prize finalist Will Arbery confronts humanity’s darkest fears with humor, warmth and the fortitude of municipal public servants in this play about climate and change.

Press Reviews

"Arbery is one of the theater’s greatest listeners, able to hear and reproduce the subtle and deeply specific ways individuals reveal themselves and their relationships to others with language."
— The New York Times Magazine

"Surreal touches lend mystery to the mundane in this teasingly existential comedy-drama."
— TheaterMania

"A work that makes you laugh, recoil and think… the ostensible subject of the dark absurdist comedy... is the human impact of climate change. But it’s more universally about the psychological and emotional climate of existential dread that manifests itself with the fear of change… the show interweaves segments of laugh-out-loud ridiculousness with sudden inexplicable shocks of eerie dark energy as it delves into the minds of the anxiety-ridden characters, in a challenging work loaded with meaningful absurdity."
— DC Theater Arts

"A pitch-dark comedy… Arbery is the playwright of the moment… writing about issues that tend to lead to indulgent hopelessness. …But what if looking right into the heart of catastrophe could actually get us to act?"
— The New Yorker

"Strange and wonderful... goes to some very dark places, but in drawing out the humor in life's ridiculousness, Evanston Salt Costs Climbing is oddly and refreshingly affirming."
— Talkin' Broadway

Characters

Character	Gender	Age	Description
Basil male, Greek, salt truck driver, 50s	male	50s	male, Greek, salt truck driver, 50s
Maiworm female, Evanstonian, public works administrator, 50s	female	50s	female, Evanstonian, public works administrator, 50s
Jane, Jr. female, Evanstonian, volunteer, 20s	female	20s	female, Evanstonian, volunteer, 20s
Peter male, Evanstonian, salt truck driver, 40s	male	40s	male, Evanstonian, salt truck driver, 40s