Purity
by Thomas Bradshaw

Purity Book Cover
Purity Cover

Highlights

Reduced Casting (Doubling Possible) Unit Set/Multiple Settings American

Synopsis

"In Purity, a refined and prominent African-American English professor's life is turned upside down when a new, 'more black' professor is hired in his department and challenges his authenticity, his marriage to a white woman, and his entire way of life.

This way of life consists of literature, booze, cocaine binges, and pedophilia.

From realism to fantasy, Purity takes us on a journey from the Ivy League to the ante-bellum South to the fields of Ecuador and back again, ending on a note of shocking violence."--Publisher's website.

Themes Drama

Press Reviews

"Thomas Bradshaw's Purity lures you with a goofy, comic touch, and he and the game, energetic cast can make your laughs catch in your throat."

— The New York Times

"Authentically hard-hitting and provoking...... Thomas Bradshaw wants to use the theatre to poke and prod his audience away from complacency and toward social action... It's work that's designed to make us think and feel after we leave the theatre; that's got to be a good thing."

— Nytheatre.com

"A whip smart exercise in sublime discomfort..... Squarely confronting social taboos, Purity unabashedly raises incredibly relevant questions about race in contemporary America -- but don't expect Bradshaw to offer any answers. Instead he opens a Pandora's box of power, exploitation, and fantasy, handing it over to us to make of it what we will."

— Backstage

"Purity finally achieves the trifecta of what it had been after all along – it frightens, it provokes and it causes contemplation. For those who have pushed through the more repellent moments of Purity, there is something satisfying here."

— American Theatre Web

"Vicious and harrowing... a profoundly disturbing play"

— New York Sun

Publication

Publisher Samuel French
Year 2007
Binding Paperback
Pages 54
Place New York
Language English
ISBN-13 9780573650116
ISBN-10 057365011X
LCCN 2010290116
LCC MLCS 2010/40227 (P)

Purity is a American play written by Thomas Bradshaw and published by Samuel French in New York (2007).

Digital editions available on Amazon Kindle .

Community Reviews

No community reviews yet

Rating

3.0

15 ratings · 23 reviews

Review

Buy Play

Performance Rights

Available for Licensing
Amateur & Professional
Fee: Minimum Fee: $120 per performance

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

Apply for Rights

Similar Plays

Plays with similar themes, style, and content.

More from Thomas Bradshaw

More plays from Thomas Bradshaw that we think you'll enjoy.