The Evildoers
by David Adjmi

Name: The Evildoers
Brand: David Adjmi
SKU: 9780573703294
Rating: 4 (6 reviews)

The Evildoers Book Cover — The Evildoers Cover

Highlights

Female

Male

120 mins Present Day Ensemble Cast Interior Set Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes

Synopsis

David Adjmi offers a fierce and furious play about intimate human relationships.

Carol and Jerry celebrate their anniversary with friends Martin and Judy.

But an evening of haute cuisine and expensive wine is cut short when Martin, no longer able to repress years of frustration, lashes out at the people he loves.

Soon, the facade of their pristine American lives shatters.

With ferocious humor and violent turns, David Adjmi's searing drama lays bare the vast desolation that lies beneath a quiet dinner with friends.

Characters

Character	Gender	Age	Description
Carol Thernstrom Jerry’s wife. A wedding planner who is intensely cynical about marriage. She is quick-witted, fashionable, controlling, meticulous (i.e., compulsive), self-conscious, literate, and wears all this like a kind of breastplate, or armor. But deep down she knows something in her is dying, or has died; her conscience is bothering her. The discomfiture comes out as hostility. There’s something childlike and untouched in her that no one sees. A woman in her forties who takes care of herself, or a woman in her mid-thirties who is aging prematurely - either way, the lines are showing.	female	—	Jerry’s wife. A wedding planner who is intensely cynical about marriage. She is quick-witted, fashionable, controlling, meticulous (i.e., compulsive), self-conscious, literate, and wears all this like a kind of breastplate, or armor. But deep down she knows something in her is dying, or has died; her conscience is bothering her. The discomfiture comes out as hostility. There’s something childlike and untouched in her that no one sees. A woman in her forties who takes care of herself, or a woman in her mid-thirties who is aging prematurely - either way, the lines are showing.
Martin Goldstrom Jerry’s best friend from boarding school. An anesthesiologist. Has a warmth, a naifish sweetness and desire to learn. Intensely emotional, but tries to conceal this with varying degrees of success. Develops a deep, agonizing, insatiable spiritual longing throughout the course of the play, as well as a profound - and finally pathological - need to connect to people, to himself, to something authentic and rooted. Jerry’s age, maybe a year younger.	—	—	Jerry’s best friend from boarding school. An anesthesiologist. Has a warmth, a naifish sweetness and desire to learn. Intensely emotional, but tries to conceal this with varying degrees of success. Develops a deep, agonizing, insatiable spiritual longing throughout the course of the play, as well as a profound - and finally pathological - need to connect to people, to himself, to something authentic and rooted. Jerry’s age, maybe a year younger.
Judy Goldstrom The fragile, under-confident and somewhat neurotic wife of Martin. She works to conceal her obsessiveness and neuroses - she’s embarrassed by them; will admit to her “inappropriate” frailties out of both politeness and the need to exhibit “self-awareness.” Her respect for decorum is a default. Younger than Martin.	female	—	The fragile, under-confident and somewhat neurotic wife of Martin. She works to conceal her obsessiveness and neuroses - she’s embarrassed by them; will admit to her “inappropriate” frailties out of both politeness and the need to exhibit “self-awareness.” Her respect for decorum is a default. Younger than Martin.
Jerry Thernstrom Possesses the old-world affectations and speech of an older WASP-y type, as well as the glow of narcissism and self-containment that is specific to New York psychoanalysts. Habituated to luxury and privilege - to the extent that he just blends in with it. Outwardly polite, slightly eccentric, nerdishly academic and also a little abstracted, out of touch. Has a true goofy, silly side to him and also a quietly pained detachment that - by the end of the play - opens into chaos and self-loathing. Late thirties to early forties; right before the cusp of middle age.	male	—	Possesses the old-world affectations and speech of an older WASP-y type, as well as the glow of narcissism and self-containment that is specific to New York psychoanalysts. Habituated to luxury and privilege - to the extent that he just blends in with it. Outwardly polite, slightly eccentric, nerdishly academic and also a little abstracted, out of touch. Has a true goofy, silly side to him and also a quietly pained detachment that - by the end of the play - opens into chaos and self-loathing. Late thirties to early forties; right before the cusp of middle age.