A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE
Evanston Salt Costs Climbing
Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 2m
Image: 2022 New Group Production (Monique Carboni)
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Cast Size
2w, 2m -
Duration
90 minutes -
Target Audience
Adult, Teen (Age 14-18)
Details
Summary
Winters keep getting worse in Evanston, IL, where salt truck drivers Peter and Basil battle the ice and snow and pass the time with jokes and stories. But what’s with this creeping sense of dread? Is it because their boss Maiworm has noble visions of new green technology that would make their jobs obsolete? Or is there a more terrifying warning calling out from under these roads? At least they have each other, right?
Pulitzer Prize finalist Will Arbery confronts humanity’s darkest fears with humour, warmth and the fortitude of municipal public servants in this play about climate and change.
History
Performing Groups
- Time Period Contemporary, Present Day
- Setting Evanston, IL. Three Januarys: 2014, 2015, 2016.
- Features Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes
- Additional Features No Intermission
- Duration 90 minutes
- Cautions
- Alcohol
- Strong Language
- Mild Adult Themes
- Smoking
Media
“This tiny play about love and loss and betrayal in a dying Middle America is something everyone should see and then talk about.” – Variety
“Arbery is one of the theater’s greatest listeners, able to hear and reproduce the subtle and deeply specific ways individuals reveal themselves and their relationships to others with language.” – The New York Times Magazine
“Surreal touches lend mystery to the mundane in this teasingly existential comedy-drama.” – TheaterMania
“A work that makes you laugh, recoil and think… the ostensible subject of the dark absurdist comedy... is the human impact of climate change. But it’s more universally about the psychological and emotional climate of existential dread that manifests itself with the fear of change… the show interweaves segments of laugh-out-loud ridiculousness with sudden inexplicable shocks of eerie dark energy as it delves into the minds of the anxiety-ridden characters, in a challenging work loaded with meaningful absurdity.” – DC Theater Arts
“A pitch-dark comedy… Arbery is the playwright of the moment… writing about issues that tend to lead to indulgent hopelessness. …But what if looking right into the heart of catastrophe could actually get us to act?” – The New Yorker
“Strange and wonderful... goes to some very dark places, but in drawing out the humor in life's ridiculousness, Evanston Salt Costs Climbing is oddly and refreshingly affirming.” – Talkin' Broadway
“A song for the striving: a love letter to those who feel too much, who can’t help but give and give of themselves even if it comes at their own expense.” – The Brooklyn Rail
“In a great piece of art, you’ll have one moment where the truth will punch through. But in a profoundly generous piece of art, like Evanston – a play that is theoretical, painful, deep, and hysterically funny – those moments of truth keep punching through and through and through.” – BOMB MagazineVideos
Evanston Salt Costs Climbing – New Group Trailer
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Ken Leung discusses Evanston Salt Costs Climbing
Photos
Image: 2022 New Group Production (Monique Carboni)
Licensing & Materials
- Minimum Fee: £55 per performance plus VAT when applicable.
Authors
