THE STORY: The scene is the wastepaper processing plant in a blue-collar Massachusetts town. Two workmen, Archie and George, are drinking beer and swapping stories, mostly about their apparently extensive sexual conquests. Archie mentions that Margy, a friend from high school and now a widow, has invited him to join her for a dinner. When she arrives to pick Archie up, the mood of the play shifts. Suddenly, the play’s original macho bantering takes on new and dangerous meanings. Margy will subtly set the two men against each other while gradually revealing her contempt for her former classmates, whose lives have remained in a rut, she says, while she went on to bigger and better things living in the big city. But this is only the beginning of Margy’s complaint. Piece by piece Margy reconstructs a night, fifteen years ago, when she was gang-raped after a party by a group of boys who included not only Archie and George, but also her blind brother, whom she’s come back to town to visit. In the end, Margy gets what she came for: her revenge, and a violent, breath-stopping exorcism of the guilt and remorse that has plagued them all throughout the years.
Building steadily, this gripping play begins with the seemingly lighthearted reunion of three former high school classmates and then moves on, inexorably, to a shattering, explosive denouement.
“Mystery, menace, confrontation, violence, resolution—these are the phases of Israel Horovitz’s remarkably naturalistic play THE WIDOW’S BLIND DATE.” —New York Post.
“…the playwright’s toughest, grittiest play.” —Variety.
“…packs a wallop that few plays will be able to equal…” —Brooklyn Free Press.
“THE WIDOW’S BLIND DATE is a scorcher.” —Boston Globe.
