Unmerciful Good Fortune
Play Description
Arrogant young Puerto Rican Fatima, who works as a counter girl at a fast-food restaurant, has been arrested for the murder of 14 people, poisoned at her workplace. Young attorney Jeremy has been assigned to defend her and asks a Latina colleague, Maritza, to be his translator. But Fatima refuses to talk to anyone but Maritza, and she's enough of a manipulator to get her way. Fatima claims she has been blessed — or cursed — with psychic powers. By merely clasping the hand of an individual, she says, she can immediately grasp everything about him/her including past, future, and innermost secrets. She tells Maritza that her murders were mercy killings: She “read” each of her victims and killed them because they wanted to die. Maritza is first incredulous, then indignant at Fatima's playing God. She firmly resists letting Fatima clasp her hand, but Fatima is persuasive, constantly shifting from pugnacious, foul-mouthed street girl to wise and wily seductress to gentle, compassionate young woman. Maritza finally offers up her hand, yielding her secrets and placing her fate in Fatima's grasp.
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (3 female, 3 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
- Productions
Press Quotes
“Since graduating from the Yale School of Drama in 1994, Edwin Sánchez has won more fellowships and foundation grants than most playwrights receive in a lifetime. Go see UNMERCIFUL GOOD FORTUNE and you will understand why. The drama’s premise is intriguing, and the action often riveting, but what really sets the play apart is the dialogue. Sánchez’s characters can change moods on a dime.” —Virginia Gerst, Pioneer Press
“Many years ago, playwright Tom Stoppard demonstrated the art of creating suspense to an audience … Playwright Edwin Sánchez probably did not attend that lecture, but he certainly knows how to create the same mood in his latest work, UNMERCIFUL GOOD FORTUNE … The audience is kept on the edge of their seats. While they cannot predict what will come next, each twist and turn of the plot seems exactly right as it unfolds. The play centers on two Latinas: Fatima, a clairvoyant, uneducated hourly wage earner-turned-murderer, and on a successful, highly educated assistant district attorney, a single parent caring for her dying mother. From this unlikely pairing, Sánchez builds a story that examines class, racial and gender conflicts, family and professional relationships, friendship, heterosexual and homosexual love, self-realization, personal worth, and the ethics of euthanasia …” —Beverly Friend, Lerner
Author(s)
Edwin SánchezWinner of the National Latino Playwriting Award for LA BELLA FAMILIA, recent productions include UNMERCIFUL GOOD FORTUNE and TRAFFICKING IN BROKEN HEARTS, both in Los Angeles as well as the world premiere of the romantic comedy I'LL TAKE ROMANCE at the Evolution Theatre in Ohio. Other productions include: DIOSA, produced by Hartford Stage after a successful workshop by New York Stage and Film, TRAFFICKING IN BROKEN HEARTS at the Bank Street Theater in New York, UNMERCIFUL GOOD FORTUNE at the Intar Theater in New York, for which he received the Princess Grace Playwriting Award in 1994, and BAREFOOT BOY WITH SHOES On at Primary Stages in New York. This play was selected by the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference to represent the National Playwrights Conference at the Schelykovo Playwrights Seminar in Russia; ICARUS produced by Fourth Unity, Actors Theater of Louisville as part of their Humana Festival, San Jose Rep and regionally throughout the U.S.; and TRAFFICKING IN BROKEN HEARTS, Atlantic Theater in New York, and productions in Brazil and Switzerland. He was also among the playwrights involved with Brave New World, an organization commemorating the events surrounding September 11th. www.edwinsanchez-writer.com. Edwin is on the playwriting faculty at Primary Stages in New York City.
Book Information
| Publisher | BPPI |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 2/1/2016 |
| Pages | 64 |
| ISBN | 9780881456455 |
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:
Originally co-produced by Victory Gardens Theater and Northlight Theater, Chicago
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
Upcoming and Recent Productions
Nonprofessional
Related Plays
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
In this unabashedly sentimental comedy, a cat named Samantha has just started living with a guy named Shuman who she believes is her true love. At first everything seems to be going great. Samantha can't get enough of Shuman, and she can't get enough of him. But soon Samantha realizes that Shuman doesn't always seem to understand her. Worse yet, Shuman doesn't always seem all that interested in trying to understand her. Things become truly problematic when one night Oscar, a sexy alley cat, shows up at the door. Suddenly Samantha begins to wonder whether she's an indoor or an outdoor cat. To make matters more complicated, a quirky aspiring cat therapist named Matilda inserts herself into the mix, thinking she can solve everyone's problems but only seems to make things worse. Eventually Samantha finds herself on a journey, both physical and emotional, that leads her to discover what having a home and being loved really mean to her. INDOOR/OUTDOOR is an allegory about the difficulties and joys of all manner of relationships.
Production Info
Cast: 4 total (2 female, 2 male)Full Length Comedy (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
A wealthy woman invites two strangers to join her in a strange feast commemorating the death of her parents. Mayannah has done this every year but her dark purpose remains unclear. All that will change tonight when two damaged souls find their way to her table. Taking place in a not-so-distant future, the sounds of a war-torn Los Angeles fill the air. Tensions rise, true colors are revealed and the main course is not the only thing with claws …
Production Info
Cast: 3 total (3 female)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
In a Spanglish-speaking land, Juanita disguises herself as a man to escape the wrath of her lover Ignacio's father. Masquerading as a “new” Don Juan, she careens through the city and seduces Alejandra, a wealthy art collector, Tomás, a leather bar patron and Beatríz, an innocent, society bride, who all fall instantly in love with him/her. Juanita's romp soon lands her squarely at the feet of Don Juan himself as she struggles to find true love.
Production Info
Cast: 12 total (7 female, 5 male)Full Length Comedy (about 75 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
Henry Sullivan, 27, single, gay, and autistic, lives his life vicariously through the heroes and heroines of the 19th-century British novels he devours. But no marriage plot has prepared him for dating as a contemporary gay man. When he meets a potential match in Joseph, every romantic notion of his will finally come true — or will it? Hilarious and heartbreaking, LIGHT SWITCH tells the story of one remarkable young man's journey toward love and acceptance over the span of twenty years.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (1 female, 4 male, doubling)Full Length Comedy (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
Several years after tragedy impacted their lives, a family comes together once again for Thanksgiving dinner. While family members struggle to come to terms with residual anger, grief and guilt, Jack Canfora’s thought-provoking play explores how people cope with personal and collective catastrophe. Displaying surprising humor and biting wit, this Jericho, Long Island clan exposes their desperate strategies for resolution and redemption.
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (3 female, 3 male)Full Length Drama (about 95 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
Bernardo Solano updates the classic tale of Zorro to the 21st century, complete with immigrant laborers, a sadistic chief of security, and an ineffective computer geek who’s taken in by a homeless man who claims to be the original Zorro.
Production Info
Cast: 7 total (3 female, 4 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
The play follows a group of strangers in the waiting room of an AIDS clinic over the course of several months.
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (1 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
Recently deceased lawyer and all-around schlemiel Simon Ackerman suddenly finds himself desperate to get into Hell, which, God forbid, turns out to be the better place to both visit and spend eternity. Struggling against the demons before him as well as the demons within, Simon encounters other proud denizens of Hell, including William Shakespeare, Frank Sinatra, Vlad the Impaler, and a chic, fashionable Mother Theresa, among others. At the end of his journey, Simon finds himself face to face with the most timeless conundrum of all — what do you do when you are finally being held accountable for your actions on Earth, being held accountable to a completely different set of standards, and most importantly, where do you truly wish to end up when you leave it?
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (3 female, 5 male, some doubling)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$11.95–$15.00
Play Description
In the second part of Tony Kushner's epic, the plague of AIDS worsens, relationships fall apart as new ones form, and unexpected friendships take form.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (3 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 220 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
A quirky, inventive, and fun play in which time is out of joint as married couple Jeff and Joan contend with ghosts, beasts, and witches banging on their windows, wafting through their rooms, and wielding butcher knives.
Production Info
Cast: 4 total (2 female, 2 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
Play Description
Dog and Buck, former lovers, run into each other at a bar. Both now have AIDS. Buck’s disease is in the advanced stages, and Dog refuses to recognize and acknowledge their shared past and, inevitably, their shared future.
Production Info
Cast: 2 total (2 male)Short Drama (about 30 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
Play Description
Wilson is searching for his deceased son, James. With the assistance of two experts in reincarnation, he finds a young woman, Jaime, but is she really his son reincarnated?
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (4 female, 4 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes