I Will Be Gone

by Erin Courtney

Seventeen-year-old Penelope goes to live with her Aunt Josephine in a small town in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains after her mom dies. Everyone in this small town—built right next door to a ghost town—is haunted by something or someone, and no one knows how to behave. Filled with apparitions, earthquakes, and strange attempts to mourn, this play explores the beauty and awkwardness of living with the...

Seventeen-year-old Penelope goes to live with her Aunt Josephine in a small town in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains after her mom dies. Everyone in this small town—built right next door to a ghost town—is haunted by something or someone, and no one knows how to behave. Filled with apparitions, earthquakes, and strange attempts to mourn, this play explores the beauty and awkwardness of living with the knowledge that everything ends.

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I Will Be Gone

Recommended by

  • Samantha Marchant: I Will Be Gone by Erin Courtney
    “

    The interactions between characters feels very real. A play about longing and loss.

    The interactions between characters feels very real. A play about longing and loss.

    ”
  • Nick Malakhow: I Will Be Gone by Erin Courtney
    “

    Funny, unique, and human, "I Will Be Gone" is a haunting piece that straddles genres to explore universal themes of loss, bereavement, and loneliness. The small, nameless town (and the adjacent ghost town) is another key character in the piece, rendered so well through the distinctly-drawn and sympathetic characters. The reactions, interactions, and conversations in this play take nuanced and complex terms that you don't necessarily see coming, make them feel all the more organic and natural.

    Funny, unique, and human, "I Will Be Gone" is a haunting piece that straddles genres to explore universal themes of loss, bereavement, and loneliness. The small, nameless town (and the adjacent ghost town) is another key character in the piece, rendered so well through the distinctly-drawn and sympathetic characters. The reactions, interactions, and conversations in this play take nuanced and complex terms that you don't necessarily see coming, make them feel all the more organic and natural.

    ”
  • Emma Goldman-Sherman: I Will Be Gone by Erin Courtney
    “

    A beautifully lyrical play that aches with longing and loss. The characters are wonderfully rendered. This play gives me the ineffable feelings I get when the future feels far away and the past is moving in the opposite direction, and I'm sure that any minute I'll be left all alone in a permanent present - it feels good to see that other people know that longing for and running from connection. Great work.
    (And as an aside, I am proud to recommend it as my 700th play recommendation for NPX.)

    A beautifully lyrical play that aches with longing and loss. The characters are wonderfully rendered. This play gives me the ineffable feelings I get when the future feels far away and the past is moving in the opposite direction, and I'm sure that any minute I'll be left all alone in a permanent present - it feels good to see that other people know that longing for and running from connection. Great work.
    (And as an aside, I am proud to recommend it as my 700th play recommendation for NPX.)

    ”
View all 8 recommendations

Production History

  • Professional, Actors Theater of Louisville, Humana Festival of New American Plays, 2015