Melancholy Play
by Sarah Ruhl

Name: Melancholy Play
Brand: Sarah Ruhl
SKU: 9780573703232
Rating: 4.15 (1 reviews)

Melancholy Play Book Cover — Melancholy Play Cover

Highlights

Female

Male

120 mins Present Day Strong Role for Leading Woman (Star Vehicle) Interior Set Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes Comedy

Synopsis

Tilly’s melancholy is of an exquisite quality.

She turns her melancholy into a sexy thing, and every stranger she meets falls in love with her.

One day, inexplicably, Tilly becomes happy, and wreaks havoc on the lives of her paramours.

Frances, Tilly’s hairdresser, becomes so melancholy that she turns into an almond.

It is up to Tilly to get her back.

Press Reviews

"A rumination on love in relation to a kind of existential tristesse, a romantic sadness more embraced by Europeans than us think-positive Americans, Melancholy Play bears the markings of a young dramatist, laying the groundwork for themes and effects she will revisit often… as her career continues."
— Seattle Times

"A gentle misery-loves-company fable of high wit."
— Chicago On the Aisle

"If you’ve never experienced Sarah Ruhl’s work before — or if you’ve wondered what all the fuss over the lauded American playwright is about — Melancholy Play is a good place to start. This early work… is whimsical, surrealistic, even absurdist somewhat in the mode of Eugene Ionesco. You worry that bad things happen to good people? Here really strange things happen to all people… Giddy as it is, Melancholy Play actually affords considerable psychological insight."
— Dallas News

Characters

Character	Gender	Age	Description
Tilly A bank teller	—	—	A bank teller
Frances A hairdresser	—	—	A hairdresser
Joan A British nurse	—	—	A British nurse
Lorenzo The Unfeeling A psychiatrist	—	—	A psychiatrist
Julian A cello player	—	—	A cello player
Frank A tailor	—	—	A tailor