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Pastoralia

Pastoralia brings to the stage New York Times best-selling author George Saunders' heartbreaking and hilarious vision of betrayal, loyalty and humiliation in a decaying American theme park.

More information

Description

  • Full Length Play
  • Comedy, Drama
  • 90 minutes

  • Target Audience: Teen (Age 14 - 18), Adult
  • Set Requirements: Area Staging

  • Performance Group:
  • Community Theatre, High School/Secondary
Pastoralia brings to the stage New York Times best-selling author George Saunders' heartbreaking and hilarious vision of betrayal, loyalty and humiliation in a decaying American theme park. 

In a twisted yet recognizable version of corporate life, Ed and Janet work as cavemen re-enactors in a second-rate Disney-like amusement park teetering on the brink of financial ruin. Both have family troubles back home and are desperate to keep their jobs in the face of company-wide layoffs and morally dubious practices. It's the 21st century of corporate bosses, fax machines, drugs and tourists, a dystopia that explodes with dark wit and razor-sharp intelligence. 
REVIEWS:

"Bizarre... Jarring... Funny... this stage adaptation of George Saunders' brilliantly entertaining and brazenly off-kilter novella [is]... inspired... Director and adaptor Yehuda Duenyas, a founder of the National Theater of the United States of America, creates a... heartbreaking... and absurd comic style."

 The New York Times

"A potent, funny adaptation of George Saunders' biting novella... both heartbreaking and -- despite the bizarre backdrop -- acutely familiar."

The New Yorker

"Saunders has an ear for everything fraudulent and insidiously illogical about corporate America, and Duenyas... a master of intellectual slapstick... has a reputation for bringing the illogical to life. Be forewarned: the absurdest take on corporate life -- although set in a papier mâché cave -- here may seen to you too true."

New York Press

"...[A] high concept... quirky and enchanting new play... uniformly brilliant performers... [An] irony-laden, sensitive comedy."

Time Out New York

"Pastoralia is quintessential George Saunders, the fiction writer's allegory of the cave as totally American workplace hell... [A] wickedly potent stage transfer... hilarious flights of linguistic fancy... [McCormick and Bronz] give Pastoralia its soul... dazzling humor ineluctably gives way to an unflinching wordless take on those who put money over people... chilling... excellently unctuous and evil."

 The Village Voice

"Screamingly funny."

 Time

"Wickedly entertaining... Pastoralia is a Dilbert cartoon inked by Samuel Beckett."

 San Francisco Chronicle

Characters

  • Casting: 5M, 3F
  • Casting Attributes: Reduced casting (Doubling Possible), Expandable casting

Available Material

Name Price
Pastoralia Script Order Now

Pastoralia brings to the stage New York Times best-selling author George Saunders' heartbreaking and hilarious vision of betrayal, loyalty and humiliation in a decaying American theme park. In a twisted yet recognizable version of corporate life, Ed and Janet work as cavemen re-enactors in a second-rate Disney-like amusement park teetering on the brink of financial ruin. Both have family troubles back home and are desperate to keep their jobs in the face of company-wide layoffs and morally dubious practices. It's the 21st century of corporate bosses, fax machines, drugs and tourists, a dystopia that explodes with dark wit and razor-sharp intelligence. Area staging. Approximate running time: 90 minutes.

$19.95

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