Balm in Gilead
Encyclopedia
Balm in Gilead is a 1965 play
written by American
playwright Lanford Wilson
.
, simultaneous scenes and largely unsympathetic lead characters. The plot draws a parallel between the amoral, often criminal activity that the café's denizens engage in to provide temporary relief from their boredom and suffering, and the two main characters' becoming a couple in order to escape from their lives.
The play takes its title from a quote in the Old Testament
. (Book of Jeremiah
, chapter 46, v. 11)
, finding inspiration by sitting in cafés and listening to different conversations. He approached Marshall W. Mason, whom he knew from the Caffe Cino, to direct the production. After workshops in the directing and playwriting units of the Actors Studio
, it debuted off-off-Broadway
at the La Mama Experimental Theater Club on January 22, 1965, and was a notable critical and commercial success. It was the first full-length play ever produced off-off-Broadway
, and became the first play from off-off-Broadway to be published (by Hill and Wang
). Its two most notable productions since were a 1981 revival by Steppenwolf Theatre Company
, and another, the 1984 John Malkovich
-directed revival starring Jonathan Hogan
, Danton Stone
, Laurie Metcalf
, Gary Sinise
, Giancarlo Esposito
, and Glenne Headly
, co-produced by the Circle Repertory Company
and Steppenwolf
. Metcalf was showered with praise for her performance, specifically for her 20-minute monologue
in Act Two.
In 2005 the play was revived by the Barefoot Theatre Company
in New York City, under the direction of Eric Nightengale, who assisted Malkovich in the 1984 revival. The Barefoot revival starred Anna Chlumsky
, Francisco Solorzano, Luca Pierruci, Jennie West and Jeff Keilholtz
.
In 2010, the play returned to its off-off Broadway roots in a revival by the company at acclaimed acting studio T. Schreiber Studio
in New York City. The revival, under the direction of the studio's associate artistic director, Peter Jensen, opened its run to widespread critical and audience acclaim. The overwhelming response throughout the off-off-Broadway
community resulted in 2 extensions of the initial six-week run, ending after nine weeks on December 18, 2010. The revival played to sold-out houses for every show throughout the entire run, including playwright Lanford Wilson
himself on December 12, 2010, who summed up his thoughts on the production by calling it "a thrill to see". This would be the final production of his own work that he would see before his death in March, 2011. In September 2011, this production garnered 8 NYIT awards for off-off Broadway productions and won the award for Outstanding Production of a Play.
to a local kingpin named Chuckles. Darlene, meanwhile, finds herself completely ill-equipped to handle life in a New York slum
, and she becomes increasingly vulnerable to the attentions of the various low-rent men who hang around the café looking for an easy target.
Joe, seeing in Darlene a chance for a fresh start, briefly considers giving up dealing. Just as he is about to return Chuckles' money, however, he is killed by one of the dealer's thugs. The play ends with all the principal characters droning their lines from the first scene over and over again in a circle, implying that their lives are stuck in a demoralizing rut.
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
written by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
playwright Lanford Wilson
Lanford Wilson
Lanford Wilson was an American playwright who helped to advance the Off-Off-Broadway theater movement. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1980, was elected in 2001 to the Theater Hall of Fame, and in 2004 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters...
.
Dramatic structure
Wilson's first full-length effort, Balm in Gilead centers on a cafe frequented by heroin addicts, prostitutes (both male and female) and thieves. It features many unconventional theatrical devices, such as overlapping dialogueDialogue
Dialogue is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people....
, simultaneous scenes and largely unsympathetic lead characters. The plot draws a parallel between the amoral, often criminal activity that the café's denizens engage in to provide temporary relief from their boredom and suffering, and the two main characters' becoming a couple in order to escape from their lives.
The play takes its title from a quote in the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
. (Book of Jeremiah
Book of Jeremiah
The Book of Jeremiah is the second of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, following the book of Isaiah and preceding Ezekiel and the Book of the Twelve....
, chapter 46, v. 11)
Production history
Wilson wrote the play while living in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, finding inspiration by sitting in cafés and listening to different conversations. He approached Marshall W. Mason, whom he knew from the Caffe Cino, to direct the production. After workshops in the directing and playwriting units of the Actors Studio
Actors Studio
The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street in the Clinton neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded October 5, 1947, by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow who provided...
, it debuted off-off-Broadway
Off-Off-Broadway
Off-Off-Broadway theatrical productions in New York City are those in theatres that are smaller than Broadway and Off-Broadway theatres. Off-Off-Broadway theaters are often defined as theaters that have fewer than 100 seats, though the term can be used for any show in the New York City area that...
at the La Mama Experimental Theater Club on January 22, 1965, and was a notable critical and commercial success. It was the first full-length play ever produced off-off-Broadway
Off-Off-Broadway
Off-Off-Broadway theatrical productions in New York City are those in theatres that are smaller than Broadway and Off-Broadway theatres. Off-Off-Broadway theaters are often defined as theaters that have fewer than 100 seats, though the term can be used for any show in the New York City area that...
, and became the first play from off-off-Broadway to be published (by Hill and Wang
Hill and Wang
Hill & Wang is an American book publishing company focused on American history, world history, and politics. It is a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux....
). Its two most notable productions since were a 1981 revival by Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Tony Award-winning Chicago theatre company founded in 1974 by Gary Sinise, Terry Kinney and Jeff Perry in the basement of a church in Highland Park, Illinois. It has since relocated to Chicago's Halsted Street, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Its name comes from...
, and another, the 1984 John Malkovich
John Malkovich
John Gavin Malkovich is an American actor, producer, director and fashion designer with his label Technobohemian. Over the last 25 years of his career, Malkovich has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures. For his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, he received Academy Award...
-directed revival starring Jonathan Hogan
Jonathan Hogan
Jonathan Hogan is an American actor.Born in Chicago, Illinois, Hogan made his New York City stage debut in the off-Broadway Circle Repertory Company's highly successful production of Hot L Baltimore...
, Danton Stone
Danton Stone
Danton Stone is an American veteran stage, film and television actor.-Stage plays:*Fifth of July *Angels Fall *One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest...
, Laurie Metcalf
Laurie Metcalf
Lauren Elizabeth "Laurie" Metcalf is an American actress. She is widely known for her performance as Jackie Harris on the ABC sitcom Roseanne, Mary Cooper on The Big Bang Theory, the voice of Mrs. Davis in the Toy Story film series and as Debbie Salt in Scream 2...
, Gary Sinise
Gary Sinise
Gary Alan Sinise is an American actor, film director and musician. During his career, Sinise has won various awards including an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1992, Sinise directed, and played the role of George Milton in the successful film adaptation of...
, Giancarlo Esposito
Giancarlo Esposito
Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito is a Danish-born American film and television actor and director.-Early life:Esposito was born in Copenhagen, Denmark to an Italian father and African-American mother. His mother was an opera and nightclub singer from Alabama, who once appeared on the same...
, and Glenne Headly
Glenne Headly
Glenne Aimee Headly is an American actress of film, stage and television.-Early life:Glenne Headly was born in New London, Connecticut and her first years were spent living under the care of her mother in San Francisco and her maternal grandmother in Pennsylvania...
, co-produced by the Circle Repertory Company
Circle Repertory Company
The Circle Repertory Company, originally named the Circle Theater Company, was a theatre company in New York City that ran from 1969 to 1996. It was founded on July 14, 1969, in Manhattan, in a second floor loft at Broadway and 83rd Street by director Marshall W...
and Steppenwolf
Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Tony Award-winning Chicago theatre company founded in 1974 by Gary Sinise, Terry Kinney and Jeff Perry in the basement of a church in Highland Park, Illinois. It has since relocated to Chicago's Halsted Street, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Its name comes from...
. Metcalf was showered with praise for her performance, specifically for her 20-minute monologue
Monologue
In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...
in Act Two.
In 2005 the play was revived by the Barefoot Theatre Company
Barefoot Theatre Company
The Barefoot Theatre Company is a theatre company in New York City.It has been described as a "scrappy, young Off-Off Broadway company." Past productions have included the first stage adaptation of Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon in 2008, and a revival of Lanford Wilson's Balm in Gilead in 2005....
in New York City, under the direction of Eric Nightengale, who assisted Malkovich in the 1984 revival. The Barefoot revival starred Anna Chlumsky
Anna Chlumsky
Anna Chlumsky is an American actress best known for playing Vada Sultenfuss in the 1991 movie My Girl and the 1994 sequel My Girl 2. Her father, Frank Chlumsky, is an instructor in the culinary program at Kendall College in Chicago...
, Francisco Solorzano, Luca Pierruci, Jennie West and Jeff Keilholtz
Jeff Keilholtz
Jeff Keilholtz is an American actor based out of New York City. He trained under Lily Lodge at the Actor's Conservatory and mentored by Sergei Dreiden, star of Russian Ark...
.
In 2010, the play returned to its off-off Broadway roots in a revival by the company at acclaimed acting studio T. Schreiber Studio
T. Schreiber Studio
The T. Schreiber Studio is an acting studio located in New York City at 151 West 26th Street.Established in 1969 by Terry Schreiber, the studio was originally run out of a loft on the Upper East Side, holding classes for just a handful of students....
in New York City. The revival, under the direction of the studio's associate artistic director, Peter Jensen, opened its run to widespread critical and audience acclaim. The overwhelming response throughout the off-off-Broadway
Off-Off-Broadway
Off-Off-Broadway theatrical productions in New York City are those in theatres that are smaller than Broadway and Off-Broadway theatres. Off-Off-Broadway theaters are often defined as theaters that have fewer than 100 seats, though the term can be used for any show in the New York City area that...
community resulted in 2 extensions of the initial six-week run, ending after nine weeks on December 18, 2010. The revival played to sold-out houses for every show throughout the entire run, including playwright Lanford Wilson
Lanford Wilson
Lanford Wilson was an American playwright who helped to advance the Off-Off-Broadway theater movement. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1980, was elected in 2001 to the Theater Hall of Fame, and in 2004 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters...
himself on December 12, 2010, who summed up his thoughts on the production by calling it "a thrill to see". This would be the final production of his own work that he would see before his death in March, 2011. In September 2011, this production garnered 8 NYIT awards for off-off Broadway productions and won the award for Outstanding Production of a Play.
Plot
Set in Frank's café, a greasy spoon diner in New York City's Upper Broadway neighborhood, Balm in Gilead loosely centers on Joe, a cynical drug dealer, and Darlene, a naïve new arrival to the big city, over the course of three days. Joe seduces Darlene hours after they meet (although who seduces whom is debatable), but he soon pushes her away, overwhelmed by his debtDebt
A debt is an obligation owed by one party to a second party, the creditor; usually this refers to assets granted by the creditor to the debtor, but the term can also be used metaphorically to cover moral obligations and other interactions not based on economic value.A debt is created when a...
to a local kingpin named Chuckles. Darlene, meanwhile, finds herself completely ill-equipped to handle life in a New York slum
Slum
A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...
, and she becomes increasingly vulnerable to the attentions of the various low-rent men who hang around the café looking for an easy target.
Joe, seeing in Darlene a chance for a fresh start, briefly considers giving up dealing. Just as he is about to return Chuckles' money, however, he is killed by one of the dealer's thugs. The play ends with all the principal characters droning their lines from the first scene over and over again in a circle, implying that their lives are stuck in a demoralizing rut.
Characters
- Joe, a small-time drug dealer looking to go into business with Chuckles, the local kingpin
- Darlene, a naïve young woman newly arrived to New York
- Dopey, an older junkie, the play's unofficial narratorNarratorA narrator is, within any story , the fictional or non-fictional, personal or impersonal entity who tells the story to the audience. When the narrator is also a character within the story, he or she is sometimes known as the viewpoint character. The narrator is one of three entities responsible for...
- Fick, a pathetic, childlike junkie
- Ann, a prostitute
- John, the café's manager
- Franny, a transvestite prostitute who caters to many of the café's other hustlers
- Tig and Bob, two sociopathicAntisocial personality disorderAntisocial personality disorder is described by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, fourth edition , as an Axis II personality disorder characterized by "...a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood...
junkies who prey on attractive new arrivals (both male and female) to the café - Xavier, Joe's friend and fellow drug dealer, whose exploitation of a particularly wretched junkie moves Joe to consider quitting.
- Rake, A hustler, one of the "Fellows on the Corner".
- Bonnie, a prostitute