Stephen is a headstrong, impetuous, irrepressible romantic unable not to be in love. One of his models is Goethe's tragic hero Werther, but as a young, contemporary New Yorker he's adaptable. He believes there is a literary precedent for all romantic possibilities that justifies his choices. With enthusiasm bordering on fickleness, he turns from Tolstoy, to Stendhal or Balzac. And Stephen's never discouraged he can withstand rivers of rejection. His affairs, real and tentative, begin when his girl friend leaves him. He makes a romantic stab at a female cab driver, passes an assignation note to an unknown lady at the opera, flirts with an accessible waitress, and then has a tragic with comic overtones affair with his best friend's fiancee.
Sorrows of Stephen premiered at The Public Theatre in New York City in November 1979 under the direction of Sheldon Larry.