THE STORY: An uproarious, brilliantly provocative farce that brings the gifts of a quintessentially American playwright to bear on the current American dilemma. Frank and Emma are a quiet, respectable couple who raise cows on their Wisconsin farm. Soon after they agree to put up Frank’s old friend Haynes, who is on the lam from a secret government project involving plutonium, they’re visited by Welch, an unctuous government bureaucrat from hell. His aggressive patriotism puts Frank, Emma and Haynes on the defensive, transforming a heartland American household into a scene of torture and promoting a radioactive brand of conformity with a dangerously low half life.
“Startling…apocalyptic…a confident and unsettling scenario of surreal doom.” —The New Yorker.
“A robust new farce [that] shows Mr. Shepard’s gift for finding deadpan surrealism in bucolic speech…as hilarious as it is sobering.” —The New York Times.
“Deliriously entertaining and deeply scary…a shivering work of existential mystery.” —Newsday (NY).
“Pungent and poignant…darkly comic…masterfully acerbic.” —USA Today.
