THE STORY: Henry Hackamore, reputed to be the richest man in the world, is now a bearded, aged recluse, who lives on the top floor of a Caribbean luxury hotel, attended by his bodyguard-nurse, Raul. Paranoid, desperately lonely and obsessed by a fear of germs, he is kept alive by drugs and infusions of blood from other geniuses. Aware that his life is ebbing away, and determined to have one last fling, he flies in two women whom he had known, and loved, in the past. But while they are still attractive and vigorous, his energies are so drained that they can only talk of other times and other places. Entrapped by his delusions, Hackamore is a burnt-out case, a parody of the American Dream who, despite his limitless wealth and power, cannot forestall the inevitable decline into futility, boredom and an agonizingly lonely death.
“Shepard, the most prolific and gifted of our current playwrights, is also the most 'American.' He distills essential images from America’s ambiguous energies and puts them onstage where they writhe and crackle like high-tension wires.” —Newsweek.
“…startling and fascinating bits of stage business, as the dramatist’s imagination, which is as fertile as any in the theatre today, takes flight.” —The New Yorker.
“…a cat’s cradle of mystery, intrigue and laughter.” —The New York Times.
