Dead Man's Cell Phone

Dead Man's Cell Phone
Written by Sarah Ruhl
Characters Jean
Gordon
Mrs. Gottlieb
Hermia
Dwight
The Other Woman/The Stranger
Date premiered June 4, 2007 (2007-06-04)
Place premiered Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
Original language English

Dead Man's Cell Phone is a play by Sarah Ruhl. It explores the paradox of modern technology's ability to both unite and isolate people in the digital age.[1] The play was awarded a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play.[2]

Productions

The play premiered at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Washington, D.C. on June 4, 2007, running to July 1, 2007, and was directed by Rebecca Bayla Taichman. This world premiere production was nominated for 7 Helen Hayes Awards.[3][2]

The play premiered Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons on March 4, 2008, and closed on March 30, 2008.[4] It starred Mary Louise Parker (as "Jean") and Kathleen Chalfant (as "Mrs. Gottlieb") and was directed by Anne Bogart.[5][1]

The play had its UK premiere in June 2011 at The Arches (Glasgow).[6] The production was directed by Stasi Schaeffer.[7]

Plot

Jean takes the mobile phone of a stranger, Gordon Gottlieb, who she has seen in a cafe. She has taken the phone because it is ringing and the man does not answer it--he is dead. She goes on to answer his phone and talk to his relatives, including his mother, his estranged wife, a mysterious mistress, and a brother. Jean also finds out that Gordon was involved in the sale of a kidney.

Characters

Critical response

Robert Hurwitt, in reviewing a production in 2009 in San Francisco, wrote: "After one of her better plays, you exit the theater to enter a Ruhl world of ordinary people living extraordinary lives and small coincidences opening into quirky metaphysical conundrums.... Ruhl's gifts of probing humor, vivid imagination and poignant humanity are as alive here as in the luminous 'Eurydice' that Berkeley Rep took to off-Broadway and 'In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play)'."[8]

References

  1. 1 2 Isherwood, Charles. "A Nagging Call to Tidy Up an Unfinished Life". NYTimes. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  2. 1 2 Jones, Kenneth. "DC Hayes Winners Include Dead Man's Cell Phone, Macbeth, Reefer Madness, Irwin, Kudisch". playbill.com. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  3. Jones, Kenneth. "Sarah's Ruhl's 'Dead Man's Cell Phone' Begins World Premiere at D.C.'s Woolly Mammoth" playbill.com, June 4, 2007
  4. " Dead Man's Cell Phone Listing" Internet Off-Broadway Database, accessed October 9, 2014
  5. Jones, Kenneth. "Dead Mans Cell Phone Makes NYC Premiere Mary Louise Parker Answers Call". Playbill. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  6. Cooper, Neil. "Dead Man's Cell Phone, The Arches, Glasgow". The Herald Scotland. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  7. " Dead Man's Cell Phone Listing" thearches.co.uk, accessed October 9, 2014
  8. Hurwitt, Robert. "Theater review: 'Dead Man's Cell Phone'" sfgate.com, May 11, 2009

External links

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