Come When I Call

by Melanie Coffey

Alvera Wilkes, a successful woman in her mid-thirties, has decided that she wants to have a baby through intracervical insemination. When her best friend, Robin, offers up her husband, Josh, to be the sperm donor, friendships and relationships jettison into a complicated mess. With rash decisions made and Josh’s baby on the way, the three realize the complexities that come with baby-making and how this...

Alvera Wilkes, a successful woman in her mid-thirties, has decided that she wants to have a baby through intracervical insemination. When her best friend, Robin, offers up her husband, Josh, to be the sperm donor, friendships and relationships jettison into a complicated mess. With rash decisions made and Josh’s baby on the way, the three realize the complexities that come with baby-making and how this supposedly harmless act can change everything.

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Come When I Call

Recommended by

  • Mackenzie Raine Kirkman: Come When I Call by Melanie Coffey
    “

    Coffey does an excellent job setting up a world of impossible choices, ones so few of us many but so many of us fear having to. Children, love, and friendship all touch our lives in one way or another and here in Come When I Call the worst comes crashing together when people struggle between their idea of duty and their actual needs.

    Coffey does an excellent job setting up a world of impossible choices, ones so few of us many but so many of us fear having to. Children, love, and friendship all touch our lives in one way or another and here in Come When I Call the worst comes crashing together when people struggle between their idea of duty and their actual needs.

    ”
  • Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend: Come When I Call by Melanie Coffey
    “

    I could read plays by Melanie Coffey all day. "Come When I Call" is about a woman who wants to have a baby before she gets too old, so her friend offers her husband to be the sperm donor. What could go wrong? All the things. Obviously all the things will go wrong. This play is complex and theatrical (I love the way Melanie uses space in this one!) and the best part is you feel for every character. No one is a villain, they're just a bunch of well-intentioned people who got themselves into a mess. It's great.

    I could read plays by Melanie Coffey all day. "Come When I Call" is about a woman who wants to have a baby before she gets too old, so her friend offers her husband to be the sperm donor. What could go wrong? All the things. Obviously all the things will go wrong. This play is complex and theatrical (I love the way Melanie uses space in this one!) and the best part is you feel for every character. No one is a villain, they're just a bunch of well-intentioned people who got themselves into a mess. It's great.

    ”
  • Patrick Vermillion: Come When I Call by Melanie Coffey
    “

    Melanie has a knack for finding the the most compelling ways human beings struggle between their feelings and their sense of morality. Each character is a complex tour de force, the kind any actor would love to dive deep into and the play never settles on letting one character completely turn villainous or heroic. By the end you end up asking yourself how you would approach this situation and the answers are terrifying but exhilarating. A deeply complex portrait of an under-portrayed situation

    Melanie has a knack for finding the the most compelling ways human beings struggle between their feelings and their sense of morality. Each character is a complex tour de force, the kind any actor would love to dive deep into and the play never settles on letting one character completely turn villainous or heroic. By the end you end up asking yourself how you would approach this situation and the answers are terrifying but exhilarating. A deeply complex portrait of an under-portrayed situation

    ”

Production History

  • Workshop, Northwestern University , 2018