by Adam Rapp
First published 2002
A man stands before the audience, alone with his confession. Fifteen years ago, he killed his sister in a car crash that severed her head from her body. Now he must tell this story, grappling with the guilt that has consumed half his lifetime. This is NOCTURNE, one of three plays in Adam Rapp's collection that exposes the raw wounds of broken people. In ANIMALS AND PLANTS, crude characters scrape by in Middle America's forgotten corners, their vulgar banter masking deeper pain. BLACKBIRD drops readers into a filthy New York squat where drifters Froggy and Baylis eke out their miserable days. These characters inhabit society's margins, speaking in coarse, vivid language that cuts straight to bone. Rapp refuses to soften their edges or apologize for their ugliness. Yet beneath the graphic details and brutal honesty runs an unexpected current of compassion for people society has discarded.
Genres: drama, plays, literary-fiction, contemporary
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: dark-protagonist, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Middle America, New York
Period: Fifteen Years Ago
Paperback · Broadway Play Publishing
Content warnings: death, violence