cover design by Charlotte
Strick
cover photographs by Jeff Williams
In a time of national tragedy, the world changes overnight. On September 12, 2001, Ben Harcourt finds himself in the downtown apartment of his love, Abby Prescott—who also happens to be his boss. His endlessly ringing cell phone haunts their conversation as Ben and Abby explore the choices now available to them in an existence different from the one they knew just the day before. Will Ben let his family know he's alive, or will he and Abby take this chance to create a new life for themselves?
THE MERCY SEAT continues Neil LaBute's unflinching fascination with the often brutal realities of the war between the sexes and explores whether one can be truly opportunistic in a time of universal selflessness.
"Neil LaBute is the first dramatist
since David Mamet and Sam Shepard—since Edward Albee, actually—to mix sympathy
and savagery, pathos and power."
Donald Lyons, New York Post
"LaBute is an original voice, and the
best new playwright to emerge in the past decade."
John Lahr, The New Yorker
"LaBute [is] our American Aesop, a mad
moral fabulist serving stiff tonic for our country's sin-sick souls."
John Istel, American Theater
originally produced by the Manhattan Class Company
1 M, 1 F
Faber and Faber, I S B N 0-571-21138-0, $12.95