The Gravedigger's Lullaby
By Jeff Talbott.
Product Code: GD7000
Full-length Play
Drama
Cast size: 3m., 1w.
Limited Streaming Rights Available
Rights and availability
This title can be licensed and sold throughout the World.
* Please note the royalty rate listed is the minimum royalty rate per performance. The actual royalty rate will be determined upon completion of a royalty application.
Synopsis
Baylen is a gravedigger, a working-class man trying to keep food on the table in a world where other people make the rules. His wife, Margot, helps to make ends meet by doing laundry, but they’re slipping further behind with each passing minute. The extremity of their situation is being further challenged by the new baby who cries and cries, night and day. But still Baylen goes on, digging one hole at a time for the pennies he brings home, trying to keep his family afloat. His workdays are spent with his best friend and fellow gravedigger, Gizzer, the little brother he never had. He seems trapped, but he’s making the best of it. A chance encounter with Charles Timmens, a rich young man, brings the possibility of changing everything, though. Is a better life possible? If Baylen can keep his mouth shut and not challenge the young man’s opinions about money and happiness, maybe it is. But keeping his mouth shut has never been Baylen’s strong suit. And if he can’t, the next hole he digs may be his own. Torn between his struggle to bring home more money and find some peace in a home that is never quiet, Baylen is pushed to the edge and very possibly over it. The Gravedigger’s Lullaby is a bold and gripping contemporary drama about a time that has passed. And how little things have changed.
Notes
Limited Streaming Rights Available
Details
- Status In stock
- Type of Show Full-length Play
- Product Code GD7000
- Minimum Cast Size 4
- Pages of Dialogue 80
- Min. Royalty Rate $90.00/perf
- Approx. Run Time 90 min
- Staging Unit set.
Categories
- Target Audience College and Adult
- Performing Group College Theatre | Community Theatre | Professional Theatre
- Genre Drama
- ISBN(13) 9781619591745
Media Reviews
“There’s a core of honest emotion at the center of The Gravedigger’s Lullaby. … Its heart is always in the right place.” —The New York Times
“A thoughtful and articulate depiction of those subsisting on the bottom rungs of society.” —TheaterScene.com
“It tells a compassionate and pertinent story of people who, within the harsh circumstances of their existence, can still find, by the final fadeout, an affirmation of life.” —TheaterScene.com
"A timeless tale. … Two parts The Grapes of Wrath and one part Tennessee Williams. … It has highly relatable moments, some of joy and deep desperation.” —New York Theatre Guide
“Believable, deep, layered human stories. … This splendid play is specific, charming, fearsome, intimate and haunting. … A marvelous creation.” —Theater Pizzazz
“Gripping scene-by-scene … startlingly different … highly interesting.” —Lighting and Sound America.com
“The Gravedigger’s Lullaby … will assure [Jeff Talbot] his place in the current list of important writers for our theatre.” —DC Metro Theater Arts
“A highly original treasure. … It’s a winner.” —DC Metro Theater Arts
“Simply-structured as a parable and haunting as a sonnet by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The play has a sense of universality that works quite well.” —CurtainUp
“Poetic, theatrical, and powerful. … Vivid, convincing, and filled at once with tender emotion and frustration. … Emotionally intricate and, at times, heartrending.” —CurtainUp