Hickorydickory
Play Description
HICKORYDICKORY explores what would happen if we all had an internal clock telling us the time of our death. Someone has tinkered with Cari Lee’s mortal clock, so she’s stuck at 17 for eternity. Now she’s the same age as her daughter, Dale. But Dale’s worried about her own mortal clock — the one that tells her the day and time she’ll die. Dad’s an expert clock-smith, but some timepieces are not meant to be tampered with.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (3 female, 2 male)Full Length Comedy (about 150 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
- Production Stills
- Productions
Press Quotes
“There’s an arresting metaphor at the heart of HICKORYDICKORY, one that Wegrzyn makes literal in her foray into magical realism: Each of us is outfitted with a ‘mortal clock’ that counts down the seconds until we’re fated to die … In most of us they’re situated in our chests, the chain wrapped tightly around our beating hearts. For an unfortunate few, however, the mortal clock is lodged in the head; these poor souls know exactly how long they have left and can hear every second tick away … Wegrzyn raises powerful themes here of mortality, responsibility and parental sacrifice. ‘When you know’ how long you have left, says the fiery Cari Lee, ‘you don’t tell the people you love’ … HICKORYDICKORY’s heartrending climax ought to stop your own clock for at least a few seconds.” —Kris Vire, Time Out Chicago
“[Wegrzyn] is a quirky, gently anarchic and refreshingly populist writer unafraid of seemingly outlandish conceits, dark humor and broad theatricality … Most conceptual plays like this … tend to collapse in on themselves, eventually overrun by the logical implications of being able to know and shift time. But remarkably, Wegrzyn has created an internal logic that is difficult to defeat, however much a critic might try … Better yet, HICKORYDICKORY does not get trapped in some kind of trippy sci-fi gestalt … but remains human, sweet, compassionate and honest.” —Chris Jones, The Chicago Tribune
“This quick-paced and totally intriguing … dark comedy features empathetic characters put into situations rich in fantasy using elements of magical realism … [A] marvelously quirky and highly imaginative new work … This show will grab you.” —Tom Williams, Chicago Critic
“Normally I wouldn’t suggest that a production featuring bouts of (discreet) onstage surgery is a ripping and quicksilvery good time … [But] some smartly calibrated plot revelations and plenty of good laughs make this show a remarkably lull-free zone … [A] witty and bittersweet meditation on mortality from the singular mind of Marisa Wegrzyn.” —James Hebert, The San Diego Union-Tribune
Author(s)
Marisa WegrzynMarisa Wegrzyn has had plays produced in Chicago at Steppenwolf Theatre, A Red Orchid Theatre, Theatre Seven of Chicago, Rivendell, and Chicago Dramatists; in New York Off-Broadway at Second Stage and Kef Theatre; regionally at CenterStage Baltimore, Moxie Theatre San Diego, Victory Theatre Center Los Angeles, and Hot City Theatre St Louis. She has been commissioned by Steppenwolf (twice), Yale Repertory Theatre, and Theatre Seven. She is a founding member of Theatre Seven in Chicago and is currently writing for TV (Goliath, Amazon) while continuing her work in theater around the country.
Special Notes
If original stage producers credits appear in bold below, all licensees are required to include them in the following form on the title page in all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play and in all advertising in which the full cast appears in size of type not less than ten percent (10%) of the size of the title of the Play:
In addition, the following must appear within all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play:
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypub.com
Production Stills
Upcoming and Recent Productions
Nonprofessional
Related Plays
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
Set in the fantastical, miserable village of Brood, Glen Berger's ingenious play conjures up a marvelously imaginative world peopled by a large cast of dreamers, schemers and would-be lovers. Tormented by the memory of a beautiful young girl he adored and lost, and saddled with the child she left behind as a painful reminder of their doomed romance, a village tinker turned poet tries to ease his pain by conjuring up a hilarious and extremely moving tale, a story made up for the young boy as they sit in front of the dying embers of their hearth. When the last spark is extinguished, we have gone along with them on a magical journey filled with music, shadow, and light, meeting along the way a town full of comically misguided characters and an enchanting young saleswoman of casket bell devices for the prematurely buried. A rich and delightful fairy tale for everyone who remembers what a great story sounds like.
Production Info
Cast: 9 total (3 female, 6 male)Full Length Drama (about 140 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
A very black and hilarious comedy about love in Lydia’s Eternal Acres Funeral Home, which is enlivened by two amorous morticians and a couple of really attractive corpses.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (3 female, 2 male, 1 male and 1 female are corpses)Full Length Comedy (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
M and G's new apartment is nothing special — it really could be any generic New York City apartment — but they're hoping it's a place of healing, a new beginning after a traumatic encounter with a former friend. Unfortunately, the previous tenant of this apartment isn't a man who likes to let go … and he wasn't ready to move out. First, it's little things: their mail disappears, it feels like someone's watching them, he stops by occasionally just to say hi and see what they've done with the place. But soon, when G is called out of town for business, M is left alone, and before they know it, they wake up to find themselves immobilized and watching as the previous tenant begins to make the apartment his own again.
Production Info
Cast: 3 total (2 female, 1 male, 2 actors may be male or female or nonbinary)Full Length Comedy (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00Play Description
A small theater company’s next ill-advised production, a modern vaudeville, goes off the rails the night before opening. The cast rebels against Doc, the writer/director/star/producer, and chooses a midnight showing of the newest Star Wars movie over ironing out the show’s kinks. Then, of course, they’re sucked into a vortex and spit out into a world that resembles some of our most beloved films. It’s up to Doc and his trusty sidekick, Boof, to go on a 3D adventure to rescue the cast and the show, and the entire theatrical art form. Part vaudeville, part Hope/Crosby Road Show, A 3D ADVENTURE is an inventive love letter to both the theater and the movies.
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (3 female, 3 male, doubling, flexible casting, up to 15 actors)Full Length Comedy (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
In this gripping ghost story an eccentric librarian discovers a weather-beaten book in a return bin — 113 years overdue. Sparked by a message left in its margins, he embarks on a magical quest that takes him around the world and 2,000 years into the past. With astonishing twists and turns, UNDERNEATH THE LINTEL draws us into an unforgettable odyssey.
Production Info
Cast: 1 total (1 male)Full Length Drama (about 65 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
In this gripping ghost story an eccentric librarian discovers a weather-beaten book in a return bin — 113 years overdue. Sparked by a message left in its margins, she embarks on a magical quest that takes her around the world and 2,000 years into the past. With astonishing twists and turns, UNDERNEATH THE LINTEL draws us into an unforgettable odyssey.
Production Info
Cast: 1 total (1 female)Full Length Drama (about 65 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
FIVE OF US deals with the parallel lives of New York tenement dwellers, who live next door to each other but whose paths do not cross until one fateful moment, which spells disaster for them all. One apartment is occupied by Mark, a young writer who churns out pornography while planning the “big novel” he will someday write, and his live-in girlfriend, Lee, an anthropology grad who works as a waitress. Their next-door neighbor is Herman, a mentally deficient messenger who speaks in a language all his own and amuses himself by calling 800 numbers to make hotel reservations he has no intention of keeping. When Lee is offered a chance to join an anthropological expedition to Sri Lanka, Mark is faced with a crisis — the loss of both her companionship and her income. With the connivance of his ex-con buddy, Eddie, a street-smart would-be mercenary, Mark decides to prop up his finances by robbing Herman's apartment, in the misguided belief that the poor eccentric has been hoarding money. But, instead, what they find is the bizarre detritus of a stunted life — a life which is abruptly ended when Herman, coming upon them, is startled into a fatal epileptic fit. Fearful and guilt-ridden, Mark and Eddie try to cover their tracks — but as the play ends it is also clear that no matter how far or fast they flee they will never escape the spectre of the lonely misfit whose pathetic world they have so thoughtlessly and fatally shattered.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (2 female, 3 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
Trapped during a storm in a ferry terminal with no food, no electricity, and no cellular signal, these pilgrims of the night pass the time sharing salacious tales that range from adultery to a biblical flood.
Production Info
Cast: 7 total (3 female, 4 male)Full Length Drama (about 95 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
They seemed like the perfect couple. Attractive. Well-educated. Affluent. Why did the husband brutally murder his wife and take his own life? Aaron and Henry, two young wannabe screenwriters at a writer's retreat struggle with crippling blocks as they seek to solve the mystery. Shawn, an academic teetering on the edge of insanity grapples with her own possible involvement in the killing, while writing a book about America’s obsession with violence. Meanwhile, the murder victim's sister attempts to reconstruct the truth from the ashes of her late sister's diary, becoming a celebrity in the process. What really happened that violent night, and will any of them come close to uncovering the truth?
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (3 female, 3 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
Subtitled “A History of Science (A Chronicle of Folly, Wisdom, and Madness),” PORT TWILIGHT has been described as “an end-times extraterrestrial vaudeville.”
Production Info
Cast: 12 total (6 female, 6 male)Full Length Drama (about 85 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
NO GOOD DEED revolves around the interconnecting stories of three troubled heroes, including a Richard Jewell–like security guard; a firefighter who has rescued a toddler from a well; and lonely teen Josh Jaxon, a budding graphic novelist whose “Hellbound Hero” comes to life as his alter ego.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (2 female, 6 male, doubling)Full Length Drama (about 110 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
A fantastical “Kafkaesque” journey through time and space.
Production Info
Cast: 12 total (6 female, 6 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes