The Long Christmas Ride Home
by Paula Vogel

The Long Christmas Ride Home Book Cover
The Long Christmas Ride Home Cover

Synopsis

“Brilliant... even more ambitious than Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive... it covers more ground and is bolder in its storytelling.

Vogel’s language is at its most poetic, eloquent and elegiac.

In fact, its vivid imagery rivals the prose style of any great American short story writer.

The play sounds like it might have been adapted from a beautiful, undiscovered novella.”—New Haven Register

“One of the most absorbing evenings of theatre to come along in some time.”—Variety

Past and present collide on a snowy Christmas Eve for a troubled family of five.

Humorous and heart-wrenching, this beautifully written play proves that magic can be found in the simplest breaths of life.

Combining the elements of No theatre and Bunraku with contemporary Western sensibilities, Vogel’s Ride is a mesmerizing homage to the works of Thornton Wilder, including Our Town.

A moving and memorable study of the American family careening near the edge of oblivion.

Paula Vogel’s plays include The Baltimore Waltz, Mineola Twins, Hot ‘n’ Throbbing, Desdemona, And Baby Makes Seven, among others.

Ms. Vogel will be the resident playwright during the Signature Theatre’s 2004–05 season dedicated to her works.

She has taught at Brown University in the MFA playwriting program since 1985.

Press Reviews

"…[a] lovely and hauntingly original family drama…a work that breathes so much life into the theater.” —Time Out New York. ”…[a] delicate visual feast…When theatergoers talk about a play as a religious experience, they usually just mean that it had charismatic performances or some exciting dance numbers…Paula Vogel is not indulging in such hyperbole. She means her play to be a religious experience in the way that a Christmas Mass might be for committed Roman Catholics: an exalted communal ritual of redemption and solace… It's enough to make even die-hard agnostics believe…in the mystical powers of drama.“ —The New York Times. ”…brutal and lovely…the overall effect is magical.“ —Newsday (NY). ”Vogel remains…the best playwright writing today."

— Sun Chronicle (Providence)

Publication

Year 2004
Binding Paperback
Edition Illustrated
Pages 128
Place New York
Language English
ISBN-13 9781559362498
ISBN-10 1559362499
eISBN-13 9781559367141
LCCN 2004023903
LCC PS3572.O294 L66 2004
DCC 813/.54

The Long Christmas Ride Home is a American puppet play written by Paula Vogel and published by Theatre Communications in New York (2004).

Digital editions available on Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, Google Play (eISBN 9781559367141).

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