Jonah
Play Description
JONAH is a rumination on the story of the man and the sea. Jonah's a man on the run. He hops a Greyhound to Joppa and then grabs a cabin on the ocean-bound Carnival Princess. Drinking away his sorrows at the ship's Grass Skirt Grill, the lounge band Sheila and the Lovetones plays him into a stupor before he tumbles into the waves. Len Jenkin's JONAH is a contemporary retelling of the unfaithful servant; some love stories about the evil city of Ninevah, a Dairy Queen, and of course, the whale.
Production Info
Cast: 9 total (4 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
Press Quotes
“Life’s a beach and then a whale swallows you … Playwright Len Jenkin’s take on the eco-friendliest Bible story in Sunday school is a 100-minute storm of Hawaiian shirts, mermaid skirts and foot-high tropical cocktails served up inside a scalloped circus tent … Just like the Bible says, God stirs up a storm to drown everybody because Jonah, that no account coward and womanizer, refuses to do His will and go preach repentance to the sinners in Nineveh. What we don’t know is the outcome for all the luckless passengers and crew that sailed out to party until they hit land … The fun of a Len Jenkin play is in the wild mix-up of the cocktails and characters operating in a time-warped space where Rhodes scholars and pirate Jezebels stomp [and] fervently sing … They shake, writhe, and wax poetic to accordions and guitars and even an oboe and cello … The show is mesmerizing while you watch — and evocative long after you have left the theater.” —Martha Heimberg, TheaterJones
“Best New Play: … incredible … The frenzied take on the Biblical beach tale featured kaleidoscopic characters and heartwarming stories interwoven in a way that was meaningful, intellectual and fun … [a] hat trick.” —Dallas Observer
Author(s)
Len JenkinLen Jenkin is a novelist, playwright, director, and screenwriter. His novels include N Judah, New Jerusalem, and The Secret Life of Billy's Uncle Myron (with Emily Jenkins). Plays include DARK RIDE, PILGRIMS OF THE NIGHT, CARELESS LOVE, MY UNCLE SAM, LIMBO TALES, THE DREAM EXPRESS, and LIKE I SAY. His works for the stage have been produced throughout the United States, as well as in England, Germany, France, Denmark, and Japan. His films include Blame It on the Night, Welcome to Oblivion, and American Notes. He has received many honors and awards, including three Obie awards for directing and playwriting, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Rockefeller Foundation Award, a nomination for an Emmy Award, and four National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships. Mr. Jenkin holds a Ph.D. in American Literature from Columbia University. He's a Professor in the Dramatic Writing Department, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, and lives in New York City.
Book Information
| Publisher | BPPI |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 5/17/2018 |
| Pages | 70 |
| ISBN | 9780881457704 |
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:
First produced by Undermain Theater, Dallas
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
Related Plays
$15.00
Play Description
Hallie Flanagan Davis headed the Federal Theater in the 1930s and 40s — until the anti-art element in Congress decided that federal support of what they saw as lazy left-wing artists must end. This play, based on the tumultuous hearings before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, pits artists against philistines and demonstrates that then, as now, politics and art don’t mix.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (2 female, 6 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
Abraham Zobell is a man like other men. No better, not much worse. But, unlike other men, he has a vital need to lay flowers on an ocean grave before it's too late. Though he's recovering from a recent heart attack, Abe rejects the pleas of his wife and the advice of his doctors, rips out his IV, and sets out on a pilgrimage to the sea. Along the way, he encounters ghosts and memories, music and moonlight, pilgrim strangers, and even stranger friends.
Production Info
Cast: 14 total (6 female, 8 male, doubling)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
Based on the true events surrounding the groundbreaking table tennis tournament that marked a decisive new chapter in US–China relations, PING PONG is the story of the extraordinary young man who played the game that changed the world and the political actors who were playing him. With Nixon and Mao on either side of the court, free-spirited hippie Glenn Cowan reaches across the net to usher in a fragile new friendship between two great countries in this funny, incisive, and wildly imaginative new play about the little moments of history that set up the big ones.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (3 female, 5 male, doubling, bit parts)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
Travel to Sherwood Forest for some swashbuckling fun in this rousing new version of the classic adventure story. Long before he robbed from the rich to give to the poor, the famed archer was just another teenager honing his skills. The King is off on the Crusades and Nottingham is at the mercy of the corrupt Sheriff, who twists the law and persecutes the poor. When his dad is falsely imprisoned, Robin must step up and orchestrate a rescue mission. Friendship is tested and new alliances are formed as Robin fights tyranny and injustice, with the unexpected help of the Sheriff’s feisty daughter, Marian.
Production Info
Cast: 11 total (4 female, 7 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
MORE LIES ABOUT JERZY explores the life of a celebrated Polish writer, who comes under fire when the veracity of his award-winning Holocaust memoir is questioned. A startling meditation on art, truth, celebrity, and the artist’s responsibility to his subjects and himself.
Production Info
Cast: 7 total (2 female, 5 male, doubling)Full Length Drama (about 120 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$11.95
Play Description
A stunning play from one of America’s best contemporary playwrights, FRANK’S HOME is a lyrical, heartbreaking story about Frank Lloyd Wright, one of our greatest — if less than perfect — visionaries, a man who created a new architectural vocabulary but couldn’t create a home for himself and his family.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (3 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 110 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
Dark secrets bubble to the surface as two strangers — one a priest, the other a noted art historian — share a surreal confession at the “exclusive” Bimini Baths, circa 1918. Years before, a young immigrant drowned under mysterious circumstances.
Production Info
Cast: 2 total (2 male)Full Length Drama (about 60 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
LOOPED depicts an actual 1965 recording session in which an intoxicated Tallulah Bankhead required eight hours to dub a single line from her final movie Die! Die! My Darling! while antagonizing the film editor assigned to the job.
Production Info
Cast: 3 total (1 female, 2 male)Full Length Comedy (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
A factual dramatic account of the advancing history of the Brown v. Board of Ed Supreme Court decision in counterpoint with the personal drama of Senator Strom Thurmond's unacknowledged mixed race daughter, Essie Mae Williams Washington.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (3 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 85 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
Part murder mystery, part unrequited romance, and part absurdist debacle about the denial and transcendence of death, TRANSATLANTICA tells the story of Dr Reginald Reinhold, whose psychoanalytic session with an eccentric patient, Ilyria (of the land of Ilyria), is interrupted by his wife with news that she is dying. By coincidence, Ilyria too is dying, as is every subsequent visitor to his home — a parade of increasingly eccentric guests. With death dancing at every door, Dr Reinhold is forced to confront his own peculiar relationship with mortality. The setting is the parlor of Dr Reinhold's mansion (festooned with mythical taxidermy and curious artifacts) on the shores of the fantastic continent of Transatlantica, a topsy-turvy world where gardens are planted with cake and lovers grow into trees.
Production Info
Cast: 7 total (3 female, 4 male)Full Length Comedy (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play 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