A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

Nest

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  2w, 5m

The play is a searing exploration of American dreams and violence and their place in the national psyche.

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    2w, 5m
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Period
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult

Details

Summary
Based on historical fact, Nest is a taut domestic love triangle set against the landscape of a fledgling nation on the verge of realizing its manifest destiny at a terrible bloody cost. The play re-imagines the real life story of Susanna Cox, a young indentured servant from Pennsylvania who murdered her baby in 1809, and the story of the man who wrote the ballad that was sold at her hanging. The play is a searing exploration of American dreams and violence and their place in the national psyche.
History

Nest premiered at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA in April 2007 under the direction of Joe Calarco.

JACOB GEER - mid-30s
ELIZABETH GEER - his wife, mid-30s
SUSANNA COX - their indentured servant, early 20s
A CHAPLAIN - 40s
DANIEL BOONE - a pioneer, in his prime
MR. DRUMBLE - a publisher, late 50s - early 60s
JOE - a writer, early 20s
  • Time Period Victorian (British and American)
  • Setting In and around Philadelphia. 1808-1809
  • Features Period Costumes
  • Additional Features No intermission

Media

REVIEW

"[Susanna Cox's] tale is uniquely American, involving all our national obsessions: sexuality, class, gender roles, the search for national identity, and, most of all, the insidious, hypocritical piety coded into our cultural DNA...Doran is particularly deft at constructing dialogue filled with small, characterizing moments to elucidate her themes." - Washington City Paper

"Bathsheba Doran has crafted this seemingly simple but gripping 90-minute work from the true story of Susanna Cox"- Talkinbroadway.com

"Nest... is no simple costume-drama rendering of [a] young woman's life and death... When the artificial walls of the earlier scenes fall away and the stage is flooded by the cast working as a kind of chorus, one feels the heart of the playwright." - MetroWeekly

Videos

  • Bathsheba Doran on Nest youtube thumbnail

    Bathsheba Doran on Nest

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: $120 per performance

Scripts

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Authors

Bathsheba Doran

Bathsheba Doran’s play THE MYSTERY OF LOVE AND SEX received its world premiere at Lincoln Center this spring under the direction of Sam Gold, starring Diane Lane and Tony Shalhoub. Her critically acclaimed play KIN received its world premiere in spring 2011 at Playwrights Hor ...
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