A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

We Will Not Describe the Conversation

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  2w, 1m

Inspired by a missing scene in Crime and Punishment, We Will Not Describe the Conversation follows a massage therapist whose latest client has come with the news that her estranged brother has committed a heinous crime and is nowhere to be found. The women try to piece together how this happened, while also uncovering their own dark desires and the fear that they will one day turn out like him.

We Will Not Describe the Conversation

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    2w, 1m
  • Duration
    Duration
    90 minutes
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Adaptation (Literature)
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult, Teen (Age 14-18)
Accolades
Accolades
  • Winner! KCACTF Harold and Mimi Steinberg Award, 2016

Details

Summary
Inspired by a missing scene in Crime and Punishment, We Will Not Describe the Conversation follows a massage therapist whose latest client has come with the news that her estranged brother has committed a heinous crime and is nowhere to be found. The women try to piece together how this happened, while also uncovering their own dark desires and the fear that they will one day turn out like him.
History

We Will Not Describe the Conversation was first produced in the New Works Festival at Carnegie Mellon University in 2015, under the direction of Stephen Eckert. The play premiered professionally at 2cents Theatre INK Fest in 2018, in a production directed by Kristin Towers-Rowles.

DANI – Is a massage therapist because she likes having peoples’ necks in her hands, and she likes that she chooses not to hurt them.

SONYA – Has something heavy in her bag. But it doesn’t weigh her down. It makes her feel strong.

ROSS – Latches onto ideas that he thinks explain why he is the way he is and justify his desires.

Author's Note: This play is inspired by a sentence in Crime and Punishment, a scene that Dostoyevsky chose not to write. In the novel, Raskolnikov, a struggling ex-student,commits a grisly murder: killing two elderly women with an axe. He later confesses his crime to his lover, Sonya, who in turn discusses his crime with his sister, Dunya. Readers don’t get to know much about this conversation between the two women though, for all the author writes is “We will not describe the conversation and the tears of the two girls, and how friendly they became.” This sentence became the inspiration for this play. The connection to Crime and Punishment stops here, as this play diverges greatly from the novel.

  • Time Period Present Day
  • Features Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes
  • Additional Features No Intermission
  • Duration 90 minutes

Media

“A well structured and gripping surreally real play. Resentment and remorse, these emotions are played against each other in such a way that they twist you round and round till you dare not even breathe, and then when you think it is safe to breathe, it twists you again.” – Cynthia Clay

“From a mysterious sentence to a thrilling play, We Will Not Describe The Conversation is a gripping parable about murder and memory. Eugenie Carabatsos excitingly explores ideas and nuances of repressed femme power in stark contrast to the violent reality of masculinity and the overwhelmingly patriarchal world we live in today.” – T. Reid Kirtley

Licensing & Materials

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Authors

Eugenie Carabatsos

Eugenie Carabatsos is a New York based playwright. Her full-length plays have won the Kennedy Center Harold and Mimi Steinberg National Student Playwriting Award, BroadwayWorld Award for Best Play in South Carolina, the Trustus Theatre Playwrights Contest, the Mountain Playho ...
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