The PlayFinder™

Type of Play

Genre

MenWomenTotal Cast

The Overwhelming

Full Length, Drama
8 men, 3 women (doubling)
Total Cast: 11, Flexible Set
ISBN-13: 978-0-8222-2278-1

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MIN. PERFORMANCE FEE: $105 per performance.

THE STORY: When American academic Jack Exley arrives in Kigali, Rwanda, in early 1994 to write about his old college classmate, Dr. Joseph Gasana, and his work with children stricken by AIDS, Jack is unable to find anyone who even admits to knowing the doctor. Jack, his African-American second wife, Linda, and his teenage son, Geoffrey, become enmeshed in the politics, fear and personal betrayals that mark the start of a genocidal war—a horror all can sense is coming but no one can comprehend or control. www.jtrogerswriter.com

“THE OVERWHELMING strikes me as not only the best new play I’ve seen this year but also one of the most entertaining…Shatteringly powerful but also unexpectedly entertaining…with the atmosphere, moral urgency, and hurtling momentum of a Graham Greene novel.” —The Telegraph (UK).

“The theatre is a tribunal whose task is to present the bloody evidence and ask what you think of yourself as a member of the human race. I have seldom seen this task performed with such unprejudiced but devastating power.” —The Times (London).

“I loved everything about J.T. Rogers’ THE OVERWHELMING.” —The New Yorker.

“An urgent new theatrical voice has arrived.” —New York Sun.

“THE OVERWHELMING builds to such a chilling climax, it’s not a play you’ll forget.” —New York Daily News.

“Political theatre of the most gripping kind. J.T. Rogers’ THE OVERWHELMING handles this daunting topic with a powerful immediacy and theatricality.” —New York Post.

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