It's 1666 and the widow Celimene, the host of the wittiest salon in Paris, is being sued for her sharp and satiric tongue. Surrounded by shallow suitors, whom she lives off of without surrendering to, Celimene has managed to evade love since her beloved husband died—until Frank shows up. A traveler known for his own coruscating wit and acidic misanthropy, Frank turns Celimene's world upside-down, taking on her suitors, matching her barb for barb. This wild farce of furious tempo and stunning verbal display, all in very contemporary couplets, runs variations on Molière's ​The Misanthrope, which inspired it. Another incomparable romp from the brilliant author of ​All in the Timing.
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“A glittering tribute to Moliere”—​New York Times
"…we are in prime-time rhyme time yet again with uber-clever playwright David Ives…slyly funny…an irreverent tribute to Moliere." —Washington Post
“...Ives’ streamlined, 90-minute plot, unstoppable couplets, and the infusion of mega-topical references blows [Le Misanthrope] wide open for today’s audience.” -Metro Weekly
*Plays and dates are subject to change
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After the death of his father, meek Jason finds an outlet for his anxiety at the Christian Puppet Ministry, in the devoutly religious, relatively quiet small town of Cypress, Texas. Jason’s complicated relationships with the town pastor, the school bully, the girl next door, and—most especially—his mother are thrown into upheaval when Jason’s puppet, Tyrone, takes on a shocking and dangerously irreverent personality all its own. ​Hand to God explores the startlingly fragile nature of faith, morality, and the ties that bind us.
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“The fearsome critter [Tyrone], who takes possession of a troubled teenager’s left arm in Robert Askins’ darkly delightful play really inspires goose bumps as he unleashes a reign of terror…But he’s also flat-out hilarious, spewing forth acid comedy that will turn those goosebumps into guffaws.” —The New York Times
“Furiously funny…Askins’ most impressive talent is his ability to make us laugh while juggling those big themes that make life so terrifying: death, depression, alcoholism, sexual guilt, emotional repression, religious hypocrisy and the eternal battle between your good puppet and your bad puppet.”​—Variety
“​Hand to God is so ridiculously raunchy, irreverent and funny it’s bound to leave you sore from laughing. Ah, hurts so good.” —New York Daily News
In the wake of Edward I’s death, his son Edward has taken the throne as Edward II. His radical ideas around affairs of state, lack of military acumen, and loyalty to his ambitious lover Piers Gaveston pit him against powerful nobles and his calculating queen. These conflicts lead to Gaveston’s exile and murder, new and shifting romantic loyalties on all sides, and revenge and retribution that ultimately seal Edward’s fate.
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“A supremely modern work… tells the story of sexual obsession, religious power, and the intersection of the political and personal lives of a flawed leader… a play fired with the excitement of today.” ―​New York Times
It’s 1985. Robert Merkin, the resident genius of the upstart investment firm Sacker-Lowell, has just landed on the cover of Time magazine. Hailed as “America’s Alchemist,” his proclamation that “debt is an asset” has propelled him to dizzying heights. Zealously promoting his belief in the near-sacred infallibility of markets, he is trying to reshape the world. What Merkin sets in motion is nothing less than a financial civil war, pitting magnates against workers, lawyers against journalists, and ultimately, pitting everyone against themselves.
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“​Junk takes on the vexed question of inequity dividing American society.” —​Kennedy Prize Committee
“JUNK melds a breadth of genres—crime story, tragedy, issue play, cautionary tale—into a fast-moving, broad-ranging social thriller…In Akhtar’s telling, this story is partly about male status and power…But it’s also about race, privilege, competing ideals and, of course, greed.” ​—Time Out NY
“Akhtar once again proves his talent for illuminating the forces running our world, forces that would prefer to remain in the dark.” —TheaterMania.com
In a seemingly perfect, well-to-do Victorian home, proper gentleman and scientist Dr. Givings has innocently invented an extraordinary new device for treating "hysteria" in women (and occasionally men): the vibrator. Adjacent to the doctor's laboratory, his young and energetic wife tries to tend to their newborn daughter—and wonders exactly what is going on in the next room. When a new "hysterical" patient and her husband bring a wet nurse and their own complicated relationship into the doctor's home, Dr. and Mrs. Givings must examine the nature of their own marriage, and what it truly means to love someone.
"Insightful, fresh and funny, the play is as rich in thought as it is in feeling...one of the most gifted and adventurous American playwrights to emerge in recent years...In the Next Room is a true novelty: a sex comedy designed not for sniggering teenage boys — or grown men who wish they were still sniggering teenage boys — but for adults with open hearts and minds." - The New York Times
"If Henrik Ibsen and Oscar Wilde had decided to collaborate on a post-modern drawing-room comedy, the hotsy-totsy twosome surely would have turned out something very much like Sarah Ruhl's genuinely hysterical new work"​ - TheatreMania