Parallel Lives
by Mo Gaffney, Kathy Najimy

Off-Broadway
Parallel Lives Book Cover
Parallel Lives Cover

Highlights

120 mins Present Day All Women Unit Set/Multiple Settings Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes Comedy

Synopsis

Two Supreme Beings plan the beginning of the world with the relish of two slightly sadistic suburban wives decorating a living room.

Once they've decided on the color scheme of the races, a little concerned that white people will feel slighted being such a boring color, they create sex and the sexes.

Afraid women will have too many advantages, the Beings decide to make childbirth painful and to give men enormous egos as compensation.

From this moment, the audience is whisked through the outrageous universe of Kathy and Mo, where two actresses play men and women struggling through the common rituals of modern life: teenagers on a date, sisters at their grandmother's funeral, a man and a woman together in a country-western bar.

With boundless humor, Parallel Lives reexamines the ongoing quest to find parity and love in a contest handicapped by capricious gods – or in this case, goddesses.

Characters

Character
SUPREME BEINGS
KRIS

Blonde co-ed about 20

JEFF

Jock college students about 21

THIRD WORLD FARM WORKER
BARB and BETTY

Two menstruating co-workers

NICK and BUCK

Two manly men

ANNETTE

17 year-old girl from New Jersey

GINA

17 1/2 year-old girl from New Jersey

PRECIOUS

An everywoman

CANDIDA

A prostitute (possibly black)

LIZZIE

A people-pleasing good daughter

MARLA

Wry mother of 5 year-old, eldest

KAREN

Intense, new age, defensive, youngest

MAD and SYVVIE

Two women from New York, sixty-something

GAY NEPHEW
SISTER WOMAN SISTER, HOLLY and MOLLY

Two serious, feminist poets

DISNEY MOMS
TINA and TERRI
A WOMAN
LADY ANNE
LADY ANNE
PRINCE PORTOLIO
THE GOOD QUEEN ANNE
THE GOOD KING ANNE
BILL

A sensitive man in his 30s

+ 3 more characters

Publication

ISBN-13 9780822213086
ISBN-10 0822213087

Parallel Lives is a comedy play written by Mo Gaffney and published by Dramatists Play Service .

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Rating

4.1

50 ratings · 160 reviews

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Performance Rights

Available for Licensing
Amateur & Professional
Fee: Minimum Fee: $110 per performance

Restrictions: Major Markets Plus (US) / Standard Plus Add'l Postcodes (UK)

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