Death and the Girl

Dru, a lonely teenager with sleep paralysis and the dream of going to college, is used to seeing things in her sleep. So when she sees Man in the middle of the night, she is not scared. Man tells her about his execution. Was he electrocuted, beheaded, hung, shot? He can’t remember. But he knows what they all feel like. As they get to know each other, Man embodies different people in Dru’s life until she can...

Dru, a lonely teenager with sleep paralysis and the dream of going to college, is used to seeing things in her sleep. So when she sees Man in the middle of the night, she is not scared. Man tells her about his execution. Was he electrocuted, beheaded, hung, shot? He can’t remember. But he knows what they all feel like. As they get to know each other, Man embodies different people in Dru’s life until she can finally accept the fact that she is also dead. Dru then embodies some of Man’s dreaded experiences in life— the online groups that filled him with hate. When it’s revealed that Man shot Dru in a mass shooting at her high school, she is filled with rage. Man must help her transition to the next phase. When Dru is able to move on, she leaves a new person in her place. Man realizes that he will have to face each of his victims in this purgatory.

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Death and the Girl

Recommended by

  • Mildred Inez Lewis: Death and the Girl

    What a powerful, big play. Chillingly real and dreamlike at the same time. From its beautifully executed fluid structure, to its visceral examination of violence. It has lyrical and devatating language ("people in gas masks and those big plastic puffy suits". The Man is completely transformed by language alone.

    This play is America: violence and class, media and theater. It's intellectually and artistically ambitious in all the best ways. "[F]ood just fallin' from the sky this whole time."

    What a powerful, big play. Chillingly real and dreamlike at the same time. From its beautifully executed fluid structure, to its visceral examination of violence. It has lyrical and devatating language ("people in gas masks and those big plastic puffy suits". The Man is completely transformed by language alone.

    This play is America: violence and class, media and theater. It's intellectually and artistically ambitious in all the best ways. "[F]ood just fallin' from the sky this whole time."

  • Katie Mae Ryan: Death and the Girl

    An intensely emotional and quintessentially American piece of theatre, Giulianna Marchese’s Death and the Girl starts in a swirling sense of unreality building to a climax that plunges you back to Earth, back to America, back to Appalachia. Staging opportunities practically leap off the page, and the play would work well anywhere from a black box to a large proscenium, from grand projections and lights and a full ensemble to two actors and a chair. The strongest part of the play is its force of tempo, poetic lineation creating a pulsing energy that reflects the protagonist’s mindset.

    An intensely emotional and quintessentially American piece of theatre, Giulianna Marchese’s Death and the Girl starts in a swirling sense of unreality building to a climax that plunges you back to Earth, back to America, back to Appalachia. Staging opportunities practically leap off the page, and the play would work well anywhere from a black box to a large proscenium, from grand projections and lights and a full ensemble to two actors and a chair. The strongest part of the play is its force of tempo, poetic lineation creating a pulsing energy that reflects the protagonist’s mindset.

  • Shaun Leisher: Death and the Girl

    A pure mind-fuck of a play. Both of these characters are so complex. A very timely piece of art.

    A pure mind-fuck of a play. Both of these characters are so complex. A very timely piece of art.

View all 6 recommendations
DRU- F, 17 lonely, awkward
MAN- M, 30s, a man killed by the government for committing a crime, he is definitely guilty.
I imagine a version of this play with no set and an ensemble of movers. These actors can help with scene changes, assist with some theatrical moments using choreography, and perhaps become Dru’s classmates. The play could be done with or without this ensemble, so I have not included them in any stage directions.

The characters speak with Appalachian and/or southern dialects which may vary in thickness when they embody different characters. Their accents are beautiful.

Development History

  • Type Reading, Organization Burning Coal Theatre Company, Year 2025
  • Type Reading, Organization Digital Development Project, Year 2023

Production History

  • Type Workshop, Organization Cohen New Works Festival , Year 2025