When Moses descended Mount Sinai carrying the Ten Commandments, he never could have foreseen how one Mexican American family in Los Angeles in the early twenty-first century would struggle to live by them.

Conchita, a beautiful, single woman of a certain age, sees nothing wrong with enjoying the company of handsome—and usually much younger—men. She then encounters Moisés, a widower with a penchant for levitation, and begins to think about how this unusual man might fit into her life. Julieta, Conchita’s younger sister, walks a more traditional path, but she and her husband each harbor secrets that could change their marriage and lives forever. Their twin sons, both in college, struggle to find fulfillment: Mateo refuses to let anyone stand in the way of his happiness, while Rolando grapples with his sexuality and the family’s expectations. And the chain-smoking, coffee-drinking Belén, the family’s late matriarch, serves as our host while she advises, scolds, and cajoles her hapless descendants.

In an Our Town for the 21st Century, The Book of Want is an enchanting blend of social and magical realism that explores what it means to be fully human.

This play is an adaptation of the author’s acclaimed novel of the same name, and was written as part of Circle X Theatre Company’s inaugural Evolving Playwrights Group (2020) with a streamed reading in 2021.