Evening at the Talk House (TCG Edition). Wallace Shawn

      OTHER WORKS BY WALLACE SHAWN

      SCREENPLAYS:

       My Dinner with André

      by Wallace Shawn and André Gregory

       Marie and Bruce

      by Wallace Shawn and Tom Cairns

       A Master Builder

      based on The Master Builder by Henrik Ibsen

      TRANSLATIONS/ADAPTATIONS:

      The Mandrake by Niccolò Machiavelli

      A Master Builder by Henrik Ibsen

      The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht

      OPERA LIBRETTI:

      In the Dark, music by Allen Shawn

      The Music Teacher, music by Allen Shawn

      ESSAYS:

       Essays

      PLAYS:

       The Hotel Play

       Our Late Night

       A Thought in Three Parts

       Marie and Bruce

       Aunt Dan and Lemon

       The Fever

       The Designated Mourner

       Grasses of a Thousand Colors

      Evening at The Talk House is copyright © 2017 by Wallace Shawn

      Evening at The Talk House is published by

      Theatre Communications Group, Inc.,

      520 Eighth Avenue, 24th Floor, New York, NY 10018-4156

      All Rights Reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in newspaper, magazine, radio or television reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

      Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that this material, being fully protected under the Copyright Laws of the United States of America and all other countries of the Berne and Universal Copyright Conventions, is subject to a royalty. All rights, including but not limited to, professional, amateur, recording, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio and television broadcasting, and the rights of translation into foreign languages are expressly reserved. Particular emphasis is placed on the question of readings and all uses of this book by educational institutions, permission for which must be secured from the author’s agent: George Lane, Creative Artists Agency, 405 Lexington Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, NY 10174, [phone].

      The publication of Evening at The Talk House, by Wallace Shawn, through TCG’s Book Program, is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

      TCG books are exclusively distributed to the book trade by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution.

      Library of Congress Control Numbers:

      2016040003 (print) / 2016053904 (ebook)

      ISBN 978-1-55936-860-5 (ebook)

      Book design and composition by Lisa Govan

      Cover design by Mark Melnick

      Cover images: Getty Images (brick wall); iStockphoto (plaque);

      Getty Images (woman’s hand)

      First Edition, January 2017

       To

       Jenny Eisenberg

       Nell Eisenberg

       Lev Eisenberg

       Annie Shawn

       Harold Shawn

       Noa Shawn

      . . . after very bitter struggle, a new land,

       with cool mornings and peaceful evenings . . .

      —FENSTER, THE BROOK

      Contents

Production History

Characters

      Evening at the Talk House

       Production History

      Evening at The Talk House received its world premiere at the Dorfman Theatre at the National Theatre in London (Rufus Norris, Director of the National Theatre; Lisa Burger, Executive Director), in association with Scott Rudin, on November 24, 2015. The production was directed by Ian Rickson. The design was by the Quay Brothers, the costume design was by Soutra Gilmour, the lighting design was by Neil Austin, the music design was by Stephen Warbeck, the sound design was by Ian Dickinson, and the movement direction was by Maxine Doyle; the stage manager was David Marsland. The cast was:

ROBERT	Josh Hamilton
NELLIE	Anna Calder-Marshall
JANE	Sinéad Matthews
TED	Stuart Milligan
ANNETTE	Naomi Wirthner
BILL	Joseph Mydell
TOM	Simon Shepherd
DICK	Wallace Shawn

      Evening at The Talk House received its U.S. premiere at the The New Group (Scott Elliott, Artistic Director; Adam Bernstein, Executive Director) in New York on January 31, 2017. The production was directed by Scott Elliott. The set design was by Derek McLane, the costume design was by Jeff Mahshie, and the lighting design was by Jennifer Tipton; the production stage manager was Valerie A. Peterson. The cast was:

ROBERT	Matthew Broderick
NELLIE	Jill Eikenberry
JANE	Annapurna Sriram
TED	John Epperson
ANNETTE	Claudia Shear
BILL	Michael Tucker
TOM	Larry Pine
DICK	Wallace Shawn

       Characters

ROBERT	perhaps sixties, tall, attractive
NELLIE	perhaps sixties, thin
JANE	perhaps early thirties, thin
TED	perhaps fifties, not tall
ANNETTE	perhaps fifties, not thin
BILL	perhaps fifties, not tall
TOM	perhaps sixties, tall, attractive
DICK	perhaps sixties, not thin

      Note to anyone directing this play: While writing the play, I imagined that the characters had certain characteristics. This is how I imagined the characters. Obviously, it’s up to you to decide whether or not you want the age and appearance of all the characters to conform exactly to what I say in the list above, because you may have good reasons in certain cases for making a different choice. In London in 2015 and New York in 2017, we sometimes ignored the suggestions above.