A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

City of Dreadful Night

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  1w, 3m

NOTICE: Please be advised, this title is being made available now in manuscript form prior to its publication.

City of Dreadful Night

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    1w, 3m
  • Duration
    Duration
    120 minutes (2 hours)
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Mystery/Thriller
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult, Teen (Age 14 - 18)
Accolades
Accolades
  • Nominee! 2013 Jeff Awards, Best Production of a Play

Details

Summary
Steeped in the rich, strange atmosphere of black and white film noir New York movies from 1946-49 combined with the city paintings of Edward Hopper, this laconic full length is the sort of movie you might have cast John Garfield, Anthony Quinn, Ida Lupino and Elisha Cook Junior in if you'd been making the second movie of the double feature in 1947. Mysterious and funny, this play is not a parody of those movies but rather a deep immersion in the feel of them, as crystallized by Hopper's late night in the city paintings. Gus is a small time hood who's obsessed by the feeling that his girlfriend Anna is keeping secrets from him. He asks his younger brother Tony, a veteran who's had a serious head injury in the war, to follow her and find out what it is. Tony follows Anna, is confronted by her, becomes himself fascinated by her, and step by step the three of them slip into a dangerous nightmare triangle. Anna's secret is perhaps not that she's cheating on Gus, but something much more disturbing, involving her search for a sister that Gus or Tony may have murdered at Coney Island before the war. Step by step Tony is led deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of Anna's stories until he's not sure who he can trust, including himself, because his war injury has seriously affected his memory. But the solution to the puzzle seems to keep drawing them back to Philly's diner, and the mysterious night clerk there. This play is suspenseful, mysterious, very funny, rich in atmosphere, and has great roles for actors.
Cast Attributes
  • Time Period 1940s / WWII
  • Features Period Costumes
  • Additional Features Not Applicable
  • Duration 120 minutes (2 hours)
  • Cautions
    • Mild Adult Themes

Media

Nominee! 2013 Jeff Award, Best Production of a Play

Music

  • Musical Style N/A (Not a musical)

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: $110 per performance

Scripts

Available Formats:

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Authors

Don Nigro

Don Nigro is among the most frequently published and widely produced playwrights in the world and has continued to build a deeply interrelated and diverse body of dramatic literature, employing a wide variety of dramatic conventions and styles of presentation. He has written ...

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