THE STORY: In this dystopic view of the near-future, sexual offenders have been removed from the traditional penal system and placed in a series of “gulag"-like camps created out of dying, rural towns all over America. Laws have changed, and now offenders can be kept indefinitely (largely incommunicado), for as long as the state sees fit, no matter the relative seriousness of their crime. Tuck, an inmate who’s served his sentence for sleeping with a teenage girl, has hopes of being released. Nye, an unrepentant serial child molester, scoffs at the possibility. Things grow more ominous with visits from Tuck’s sister and the camp’s shadowy director—and suspicion grows that a secret psychological program may also be going on.
“The play asks: Who has the power to say what is art and what is pornography? What is crime? What is punishment? These themes create a suspense that terrorizes the audience…It takes courage to write such a play. Lee Blessing is a brilliant writer. The trouble is, it is all too believable.” —Montserrat Review.
