Eden
$15.00 – $15.95
Description
Set in 1927 in New York City, EDEN revolves around Eustace, a happy-go-lucky African American man, who makes the mistake of falling in love with the girl next door, Annetta, daughter of an autocratic West Indian, Joseph Barton, who rules his household with an iron fist: he literally whips his belief in racial purity into his children with a cat-o’-nine-tails.
Production Info
Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Period Costumes
Press Quotes
“The setting is a black neighborhood in New York, circa 1927: a cultivated West Indian family lives across the hallway from an uneducated but thoroughly decent young man from the American South. The young man falls in love with one of the daughters of the West Indian household. Shadings of cultural differences, an exploration of unfamiliar attitudes of black toward black … [The play uses] theatrical devices that are as bald as they are ancient. But author Carter knows that, and is struggling all the way to cross the obvious with the unexpected, the simplistic with sophisticated nuance … the author — who is plainly talented — was right to try to look for layers of personality rather than empty outlines, to upend our easy first sympathies and examine them closely for something that might be truer.” —The New York Times
Author
Steve CarterHorace E. "Steve" Carter, Jr. was an American playwright, best known for his plays involving Caribbean immigrants living in the United States. Mr. Carter received the Living Legend award at the 2001 National Black Theatre Festival. After taking over the position from Lonnie Elder as Director of the Negro Ensemble Company's (NEC) Playwrights' Workshop, Steve Carter later became Literary Manager/Dramaturg at NEC. During those years, NEC produced the first two plays of his "Caribbean Trilogy" — EDEN (1975) and NEVIS MOUNTAIN DEW (1978) — which explored Caribbean immigrant families living in Manhattan. He was Victory Gardens Theater's first playwright-in-residence beginning in 1981 and also served as playwright-in-residence at George Mason University. Carter's PECONG (winner of the Joseph Jefferson award for New Work) premiered at Victory Gardens in the 1989–1990 season and received subsequent productions at London's Tricycle Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, and Newark Symphony Hall. His plays EDEN (winner of an Outer Critics Circle award, an Audelco award, and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle award ) and NEVIS MOUNTAIN DEW received Midwest premieres, and DAME LORRAINE, HOUSE OF SHADOWS, SHOOT ME WHILE I'M HAPPY, SPIELE '36 OR THE FOURTH MEDAL and ROOT CAUSES all premiered at Victory Gardens. Mr. Carter died at the age of 90 in 2020.
Book Information
| Publisher | BPPI |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 9/12/2024 |
| Pages | 98 |
| ISBN | 9780881458985 |
Special Notes
EDEN was first presented by The Negro Ensemble Company
at the Saint Marks Playhouse opening on March 3, 1976.
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypublishing.com
