THE STORY: Four Manhattan yuppies strike up a friendship in a chic uptown restaurant after a bag lady involves them in an altercation. A month later, the four self-involved Manhattanites (three men and one woman), having fallen instantly in love with one another, converge at a seaside residence, hoping to alleviate their shared sense of alienation and purposelessness with a misguided attempt at rehabilitating May, the bag lady who brought them all together. In their pretense at public mindedness, they all seek either an escape from their own problems or redemption from the lives they used to live. How do you tell the man who’s eagerly pursuing you, and whom you really love, that you have the AIDS virus? How does your sister react to the news of your illness when she’s trying to start a new relationship of her own? How does an immensely successful architect make amends to society for years of blotting our cities’ skylines with his postmodern monstrosities? And can all these questions really be answered by taking May off her medication and teaching her about the finer things in life, like preparing place settings for a dinner party? Ultimately not, and in the end, sobered but still game, the two couples, one heterosexual, one homosexual, have remained together to drink a toast to the “accidental happiness” that, with luck, may still come their way.
Hailed as an uniquely perceptive and devastatingly witty play for our times, it traces the experiences of a group of young, rich and somewhat jaded New York “Yuppies” as they move from disenchantment to hopeful anticipation and on, finally, to a resigned acceptance of the limits of what modern life can offer.
“For anyone who has been waiting for a play that tells what it is like to be more or less middle-class, more or less young and more or less well-intentioned in a frightening city at this moment in this time zone, EASTERN STANDARD at long last is it.” —The New York Times.
“With a truly original voice, a deft hand with character and a gift for juxtaposing unexpected elements with amusing and dramatically purposeful results, Greenberg’s EASTERN STANDARD is a romantic comedy for our times.” —Drama-Logue.
“…it speaks to us eloquently, and with humor, about today.” —BackStage.
