John Ball's In The Heat of the Night
by Matt Pelfrey, John Ball

Off-Broadway
John Ball's In The Heat of the Night Book Cover
John Ball's In The Heat of the Night Cover

Highlights

90 mins 1960s Role(s) for Black Actor(s) Unit Set/Multiple Settings Period Costumes

Synopsis

It’s 1962. A hot August night lies heavy over the small town of Argo, Alabama.

A dead white man is discovered, and the local police arrest a Black stranger named Virgil Tibbs, who turns out to be a homicide detective from California.

Tibbs soon becomes the racially tense community’s single hope in solving a brutal murder that has yielded no witnesses, no motives and no clues.

Acclaimed playwright Matt Pelfrey’s adaptation of John Ball’s In the Heat of the Night is based on the award-winning book, which inspired an Oscar-winning film and Emmy-winning television series.

Press Reviews

"Eminently stageworthy... a tense and exciting story that follows the book's basic plot but offers viewers a distinctly new and different In the Heat of the Night."

— CurtainUp

"The play is taut and startlingly resonant, even as it deals with events taking place nearly 50 years ago. Pelfrey's work is economical and uncompromising... suspenseful, thrilling and stunningly theatrical."

— NYTheatre.com

Characters

Character
ACTOR #1

Chief Gillespie

ACTOR #2

Virgil Tibbs

ACTOR #3

Sam Wood

ACTOR #4

Pete/Man In Shadows/Klansman 1

ACTOR #5

Harvey Oberst/Purdy/Klansman

ACTOR #6

Charles Tatum/Endicott/Al Jennings

ACTOR #7

Coroner/Mayor Schubert/Klansman

ACTOR #8

Eric Kaufman/Ralph/Klansman

ACTOR #9

Melanie Tatum

ACTOR #10

Noreen Purdy

Publication

Publisher Samuel French
ISBN-13 9780573698927
ISBN-10 0573698929

John Ball's In The Heat of the Night is a play written by Matt Pelfrey and published by Samuel French .

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Rating

4.1

9 ratings · 15 reviews

Review

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Performance Rights

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

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

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