THE STORY: The place is a seedy country-western bar in lower Manhattan where two young firemen, Sal and Murph, are carousing. They are long-time friends who find themselves at a point of crisis: Murph is about to enter a loveless shotgun marriage and resign from the Fire Department; and Sal, who once saved his buddy’s life in the line of duty, is trying to do so again. But Sal, an insatiable womanizer who is as baffled by his conquests as he is drawn to them, is the eternal adolescent and hardly the one to persuade Murph to forego his decision to “do the right thing” and settle down to a safer, if drabber, line of work. Their debate is complicated by the intrusion of the bartender, an arrogant and paranoid bully who would just as soon fight with his customers as serve them and whose clash with Sal helps instigate the uneasy, but infinitely touching truce that brings the action to its poignant close.
Vivid, funny, and filled with exciting theatricality, this dynamic study of two blue-collar buddies whose relationship is at a crisis point astonished critics and audiences alike in its presentation as part of the Ensemble Studio Theater’s Marathon of One-Act plays.
“MEN WITHOUT DATES is an astounding work. Not only are the characters, dialogue, and action captured with rare sharpness, poignance, and humor, but also an entire social stratum and its modus vivendi are conjured up through what is said and seen.” —New York Magazine.
“…her precisely observed dialogue can spiral into unexpected hilarity.” —The New York Times.
Included in the collection
Men Without Dates and Slam!.
