French Boy Cigarettes

by Forest Malley

French Boy Cigarettes is part dark comedy, part thriller, part family drama about a 17-year-old Egyptian-American boy who lives with his grandmother Najla in a cramped apartment on the northern coast of Massachusetts. A kidnapping-gone-awry leaves them with a badly bruised boy in the basement, suspicious neighbors, the threat of deportation, and God’s judgment looming over their heads.

French Boy Cigarettes is part dark comedy, part thriller, part family drama about a 17-year-old Egyptian-American boy who lives with his grandmother Najla in a cramped apartment on the northern coast of Massachusetts. A kidnapping-gone-awry leaves them with a badly bruised boy in the basement, suspicious neighbors, the threat of deportation, and God’s judgment looming over their heads.

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French Boy Cigarettes

Recommended by

  • jose sebastian alberdi: French Boy Cigarettes

    A play that's as funny as it is distressing. There is so much to admire and enjoy in Malley's play--from the dialogue, to the humor, to the theatricality, to the poetry--but the thing I find most moving, the thing I keep coming back to, is the rare depiction of a grandmother and her grandson grappling with the ways in which the men in their romantic lives have used and hurt them. Like grandmother like grandson. A play that lets every actor shine. I can't wait to see it produced.

    A play that's as funny as it is distressing. There is so much to admire and enjoy in Malley's play--from the dialogue, to the humor, to the theatricality, to the poetry--but the thing I find most moving, the thing I keep coming back to, is the rare depiction of a grandmother and her grandson grappling with the ways in which the men in their romantic lives have used and hurt them. Like grandmother like grandson. A play that lets every actor shine. I can't wait to see it produced.

  • Nick Malakhow: French Boy Cigarettes

    What a well-observed play with nuanced, troubled, and sympathetic characters. The stuff of this play has been so historically reserved for the straight, white antiheroes of Sam Shepard and the like. Najla, Jawad, Tommy, and his mother are so multidimensional and, here, Forest Malley explores big truths about family, domestic abuse, and relationships while always keeping a clear eye on the intersectional identities of his characters and how they intertwine with those larger themes. There are sublime moments of theatricality as the pressure-cooking builds. I'd love to see these characters...

    What a well-observed play with nuanced, troubled, and sympathetic characters. The stuff of this play has been so historically reserved for the straight, white antiheroes of Sam Shepard and the like. Najla, Jawad, Tommy, and his mother are so multidimensional and, here, Forest Malley explores big truths about family, domestic abuse, and relationships while always keeping a clear eye on the intersectional identities of his characters and how they intertwine with those larger themes. There are sublime moments of theatricality as the pressure-cooking builds. I'd love to see these characters realized in a production!

  • Tanya O'Debra: French Boy Cigarettes

    This is a tense, beautifully written play about the murkiness of right and wrong.

    This is a tense, beautifully written play about the murkiness of right and wrong.

Development History

  • Type Reading, NYU, Year 2024
  • Type Workshop, Organization NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Year 2023

Awards