Brendan Healy

Suffering, Inc, is a unique creation that encapsulates the absurdities of the modern day office environment and contemporary life, yet every line of dialogue has been sourced from the plays of Anton Chekhov. While themes and characters are familiar echoes of Chekhov's work--indeed their continued relevance is haunting--the story itself is original and takes place in current times. Set in the offices of a failing investment and retirement firm called New Life Capitol, we see the characters struggle with work woes, money troubles, unrequited love, and the everyday occurrences of office life such as deadlines, birthday parties, coffee breaks, boredom, dismissal and more. The story takes place over a week in a three part structure--Monday morning, Wednesday at noon, and Friday late afternoon. As the play and the week progresses, the actions move from detailed depictions of office life to wild, fantastical events that reveal the inner hearts and hopes of the characters.

Toby Leggett lives with his sister Kayla and has been unemployed for a year. Discouraged by the job search, he spends all his time dreaming of winning his favorite cooking TV show: Champion Chef. The tension in Kayla’s townhouse intensifies when their mother, Evelyn, loses her condo and has to move in as well. As the family's forced domesticity strains unsteady relationships, Toby escapes into his cooking fantasies and Kayla seeks comfort in a secret affair with her ex-husband. Throughout the play, the family members are guided by Miranda, a magical manifestation of the Champion Chef host. She takes the form of wait staff, a car mechanics, and bank employees. The family dynamic finally explodes into a cut-throat cooking competition straight out of reality TV. This hotdish keening extravaganza forces them all to address hard truths, taboo topics, and whether or not they can still be a family.

It's the off season in Rapid City, South Dakota, just outside Mount Rushmore. Larger corporate hotels encircle the small, aging Monument Motel. This old roadside motel is owned and operated by a married couple, Brad and Joyce. They have only two remaining employees: Beth and Mutt, young stagnating slackers. Beth and Mutt, perhaps each other’s only friend, struggle with their respective future prospects. Beth secretly dreams of being a poet, and moving away from her family. Mutt, a habitual liar and self-described orphan, sees no future for himself outside minimum wage jobs and dealing drugs. Soon into the play, Joyce learns that Brad has rejected an offer from developers to buy the motel without consulting her. They come to a fragile resolution, but when Brad rejects a second offer, Joyce leaves him. Brad goes into a tailspin, and after Mutt is fired for dealing drugs out of the motel, Beth is left to try hold everything together. All four characters are forced to face the disappointment of their dreams compared to the lofty rhetoric of the American promise. Do they have a future here, together, or—indeed—anywhere? Throughout the play, we see the occasional guest come and go, as well as the four Presidents from Mount Rushmore who offer advice, drink a lot of soda, and wrestle.

Location: The lobby of the Monument Motel, on the edge of Rapid City, SD, near Mt. Rushmore

Time: Contemporary; winter-time, stretching from November to early spring.

In Elysian Lanes, a suburban subdivision outside Topeka, the Home Owner's Association president, Kathleen Pullings, is obsessed with security and order. She wants nothing more than to keep all the lawns perfectly trimmed and all the children safe, especially her teenage son. Several of the residents grow agitated by her over zealousness. One of the residents, Anne Marie--who may or may not be a descendant of both Abraham Lincoln and Vladimir Lenin--tries to oust Kathleen in the next election. Kathleen forges the election results, fracturing the neighborhood. Meanwhile several marriages, including Anne Marie's, are strained. Eventually the entire subdivision dissolves into all out civil war as several relationships are also cleft in two. .

The Secret Recordings of Lenin... is a crash course in all things politics and all things romance, especially where disappointment, idealism, treachery, and forgiveness are concerned. The play that is structured like a boxing match--and subtitled "A Revolution in 9 Rounds"--and the audience is guided by a Historian/Referee. Also there to provide some insight are the ghost of Abraham Lincoln and the secret phonograph recordings of Vladimir Lenin to woman he once loved in Kansas.