The End of Reality
Tom (1), Brian (2), and Jake (4) are security guards. Shannon (6) applies, is hired, but freezes when a man (3) comes in and abducts Jake. Shannon quits. Tom’s goddaughter, Marcia (5), is hired to replace her. The man comes in again and this time they apprehend him. Marcia lives with Tom and he worries about her. He asks Brian if she can stay with him. Brian and Marcia talk; she thinks Tom is living a drugged half-existence. Marcia has trouble with her family. In the presence of the captured man, Marcia talks about belief and God and readiness and goodness. Then she lets the man go. Later the man comes back and beats Brian up. Brian confesses his love for Marcia but she says she can’t. Tom discovers that Marcia let the man go and fires her. Brian begs him to bring her back. Tom tells him that they share the same bed, and Brian leaves. Shannon comes back to get her paycheck. The man and Jake come in and beat on Tom and gouge Shannon’s eyes out. Tom speaks of Judgment Day.
CREDITS

Written and Directed by Richard Maxwell

1: Thomas Bradshaw
2: Brian Mendes
3: Jim Fletcher
4: Alex Delinois
5: Marcia Hidalgo
6: Sibyl Kempson

Set and Lights: Eric Dyer
Costumes: Kaye Voyce
Producer: Barbara Hogue
General Manager: Christina Masciotti
Set Construction: Joe Silovsky and Gary Wilmes
Stage Manager: Scott Sherratt
Fight Trainer/Consultant: Brian Mendes
Video Consultant: Jonathan Gabel

Production History

The Kitchen, New York 2006
Steirischer Herbst, Graz 2006
Chapter Arts Center, Cardiff 2006
BITE:06 Barbican, London 2006
Perfect Performance, Stockholm 2006
Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Brussels 2007

Press

The Banality of Violence In a Willfully Numb Universe, The New York Times, 2006
Richard Maxwell: the End of Reality - New York City Players, The Kitchen, Culture Catch, 2006
Playwright's Trademark Is Deadpan. Now He Wants to Tweak It., The New York Times, 2006
Richard Maxwell’s "The End of Reality" by Georgia Kirtland, Theater Talk’s New Theater Corps, 2006

Support

A co-production of The Kitchen, BITE:06 at the Barbican, the Wexner Center for the Arts with support from the Doris Duke Charitable Trust, the Steirischer Herbst Festival 2006, the Walker Art Center, and Judith and Richard Greer.