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Zero Hour, The (George)

  • Madeleine George
  • Full Length Play, Dark Comedy, New Millennium/21st Century
  • 1M, 2F
  • ISBN: 9780573699207

A lucid drama. Appealingly brainy and messy, George's play never settles for an easy metaphor or emotion. It cross-examines our pat notions of history and love.

The New Yorker

More information

Description

  • Full Length Play
  • Dark Comedy
  • 105 minutes

  • Time Period: New Millennium/21st Century
  • Target Audience: Adult
  • Set Requirements: Unit Set/Multiple Settings, Bare Stage/Simple Set
  • Cautions: Mild Adult Themes, Strong Language

  • Performance Group:
  • Professional Theatre, Shoestring Budget, Reader's Theatre, Blackbox / Second Stage /Fringe Groups, College Theatre / Student
Rebecca and her chronically unemployed butch girlfriend, O, have created a happy nest in their run-down walk-up in Queens, but things are starting to unravel. The more O pushes Rebecca to stop hiding their relationship, the more Rebecca's work life—writing a textbook for seventh graders about the Holocaust— begins to bleed into her personal life: She starts meeting World War II Nazis on the 7 train, passing as hipster professionals in New York City but hungry to come out about who they really are.

Back home in Queens, O is also sparring with convincingly real visions: her long estranged—and recently dead?—mother keeps showing up to argue with her about her choices. This almost-love story explores the relationship between honesty and cruelty: How do you tell the truth about yourself when that truth might devastate the people you love? A tour-de-force for two actors playing eight different roles.
REVIEWS:

A lucid drama. Appealingly brainy and messy, George's play never settles for an easy metaphor or emotion. It cross-examines our pat notions of history and love.- The New Yorker'Grabs our interest from its first provocative line. The Zero Hour is a work to savor.

Back Stage

Bold, thoughtful, and incredibly beautiful.'

CurtainUp
Premiere Production: The Zero Hour was first produced by 13P (Thirteen Playwrights, Inc.) at Walkerspace, New York, in 2010. The performance was directed by Adam Greenfield and produced by Rachel Karpf (Preston Copley, associate producer).

Characters

  • Casting: 1M, 2F

  • O - 26, butch dyke, intense, unemployed, recovering
    WASP THE THERAPIST - 45
    THE LONELY NAZI
    THE EAGER NAZI
    THE TENDER NAZI
    ...all played by the actor who plays O.

  • REBECCA - 29, corporate femme, educated, graceful, Jewish
    RAE WILCOX - 59, O's mother
    LILY HIRSCHORN - 64, Rebecca's mother
    ...both played by the actor who plays REBECCA

  • THE ALL-AMERICAN NAZI - a.k.a. "DOUG," 32

    • Available Material

    Name Price
    Zero Hour, The (George) Script Order Now

    Rebecca and her chronically unemployed butch girlfriend, O, have created a happy nest in their run-down walk-up in Queens, but things are starting to unravel. The more O pushes Rebecca to stop hiding their relationship, the more Rebecca's work life—writing a textbook for seventh graders about the Holocaust— begins to bleed into her personal life: She starts meeting World War II Nazis on the 7 train, passing as hipster professionals in New York City but hungry to come out about who they really are. Back home in Queens, O is also sparring with convincingly real visions: her long estranged—and recently dead?—mother keeps showing up to argue with her about her choices. This almost-love story explores the relationship between honesty and cruelty: How do you tell the truth about yourself when that truth might devastate the people you love? A tour-de-force for two actors playing eight different roles.

    		$24.95

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