The Late Wedding
by Christopher Chen

The Late Wedding Book Cover
The Late Wedding Cover

Highlights

90 mins Flexible Cast Size Unit Set/Multiple Settings

Synopsis

Inspired by the writings of Italo Calvino ( Invisible Cities and If on a Winter's Night a Traveler ), The Late Wedding is a fractured portrait of a fractured marriage, as told through a series of interconnected fables, including an anthropological tour of fantastical tribes and their marital customs.

Christopher Chen's winking second-person narrative, delivered by a six-person shape-shifting cast, deftly guides you on a wild and delightful examination of love and longing.

At once an anthropological tour through marriage customs, a spy thriller, and a sci-fi love story, the mind-bending The Late Wedding is an inventive and surprising theatrical experience.

Press Reviews

"A seductive play... a fascinating little gem... a script about the mystery and challenges of love, in all its permutations. The play is a provocative one-act composed with a unique theatrical structure... a swirling nebula of magical notions put down in a contemporary world."

— DC Metro Theatre Arts

"A comic, dramatic inquiry into human relationships – between lovers or spouses; between playwright and audience – [The Late Wedding] is another of Chen’s slyly metatheatrical, blissfully funny, whiplash-smart creations... What begins as a look at anthropological research into the marital arrangements and lore of a few odd tribes segues without warning into a political drama cum action thriller."

— SF Gate

"Bold and brainy... As The Late Wedding dips in and out of such genres as the spy caper and science fiction... it blurs the boundaries between its two strands of Calvino homage, so that the genre-sampling meta-theater begins to reflect on the bittersweet realities of marriage."

— The Washington Post

"[The Late Wedding] is about the vagaries of love and marriage, both homo- and heterosexual, and the way that we both cherish and distort the past, and about the creative process itself... you gotta see this funny, brilliant play."

— San Francisco Examiner

Characters

Character
Kel
Lee
Curtis
Fen
Interviewer
Adama
Evelyn
Casen
Jamie
Spy
Eleanor
Raya
Eleanor
Stranger
Innkeeper
Stranger 2
Stranger 3
Stranger 4
Eleanor
General
Patron 1
Patron 2
Patron 3
Innkeeper
Stranger
+ 13 more characters

Publication

Publisher Samuel French
ISBN-13 9780573709326
ISBN-10 0573709327

The Late Wedding is a play written by Christopher Chen and published by Samuel French .

Community Reviews

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Rating

3.5

3 ratings · 9 reviews

Review

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Performance Rights

Available for Licensing
Amateur Only
Fee: Minimum Fee: $110 per performance

Restrictions: Major Markets Only (US) / Standard Restriction (UK)

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