Archives: Plays

Author: Nilo Cruz

Year: 2003

Geography: Americas > Northern America > United States of America

Synopsis: Set in a 1929 Cuban-American cigar factory in Florida, Anna in the Tropics explores the impact of literature on life. As cigars are still rolled by hand, a new lector reads Anna Karenina aloud, stirring deep emotions. His presence ignites jealousy, passion, and reflection among the workers, while the factory faces pressure to industrialize. This poetic play weaves love, tradition, and change into a moving portrait of a family caught between the past and an uncertain future.

Publication: Cruz, N. (2003 2021). Anna in the Tropics. In Anna in the Tropics (pp. 5–84). : Theatre Communications Group.

Author: David Mamet

Year: 2015

Geography: Americas > Northern America > United States of America

Synopsis: China Doll by David Mamet is a tense political drama centered on billionaire Mickey Ross, whose plan to smuggle his fiancée into Canada via private jet unravels into a full-blown scandal. As an investigation exposes tax evasion and political manipulation, Ross—played in the original production by Al Pacino—spirals in a one-man verbal showdown with unseen forces. A minimalist but biting critique of wealth, power, and accountability.

Publication: Mamet, D. (2015 2021). China Doll. In China Doll (pp. 4–82). : Theatre Communications Group.

Author: Eduardo Machado

Year: 2011

Geography: Americas > Northern America > United States of America

Synopsis: The Cook by Eduardo Machado follows Gladys, a devoted Cuban cook who promises to protect her employer’s mansion as Fidel Castro takes power. Over 40 years, she endures great personal sacrifice to honor her word. When her former employer’s daughter returns, Gladys must confront betrayal, memory, and the painful cost of loyalty—mirroring Cuba’s clash between the past and an unforgiving present.

Publication: Machado, E. (2011 2024). The Cook. In Havana is Waiting and Other Plays (pp. 146–225). : Theatre Communications Group.

Author: Eduardo Machado

Year: 2011

Geography: Americas > Northern America > United States of America

Synopsis: Havana Is Waiting follows a gay writer who returns to Cuba nearly 40 years after fleeing as a child during the 1961 Peter Pan airlifts. Eduardo Machado blends humor and introspection to explore exile, identity, and complex personal and political ties.

Publication: Machado, E. (2011 2024). Havana is Waiting. In Havana is Waiting and Other Plays (pp. 3–72). : Theatre Communications Group.

Author: Nilo Cruz

Year: 2007

Geography: Americas > Northern America > United States of America

Synopsis: Three characters whose lives seem to be moving nowhere set out to build a dream, even if that dream seems perilous. This stirring portrait of three Cuban exiles and their harrowing journey across the Caribbean Sea examines the universal themes of freedom and oppression, hope and survival.

Publication: Cruz, N. (2007 2022). A Bicycle Country. In Two Sisters and a Piano and Other Plays (pp. 138–190). : Theatre Communications Group, Inc..

Author: David Henry Hwang

Year: 2012

Geography: Americas > Northern America > United States of America

Synopsis: Chinglish follows Daniel, an American businessman fleeing an Enron-tainted past, as he tries to launch a sign-fixing venture in China. Armed with zero Mandarin and plenty of optimism, Daniel finds himself entangled in miscommunications, cultural clashes, and a forbidden romance. Hilarious and sharp, Chinglish brilliantly explores language barriers, business blunders, and the messiness of cross-cultural love.

Publication: Hwang, D. (2012 2021). Chinglish. In Chinglish (pp. 4–123). : Theatre Communications Group.

Author: David Henry Hwang

Year: 2000

Geography: Americas > Northern America > United States of America

Synopsis: The Dance and the Railroad (1981) is set in 1867 in the Sierra Nevada during a strike by Chinese laborers building the transcontinental railroad. The play follows Lone, a former Chinese opera student, and Ma, a young newcomer, as they form a bond while waiting out the strike. Through Peking Opera training and shared stories, they confront cultural displacement, personal sacrifice, and artistic identity. With poetic dialogue and stylized movement, the play reflects on immigrant experience, resistance, and the cost of dreams in a hostile, unfamiliar land.

Publication: Hwang, D. (2000 2021). The Dance and the Railroad. In Trying to Find Chinatown (pp. 54–88). : Theatre Communications Group.

Author: David Henry Hwang

Year: 2000

Geography: Americas > Northern America > United States of America

Synopsis: Family Devotions is a satirical farce exploring faith, cultural identity, and generational conflict in a Chinese American family. When Di-Gou returns from Communist China, his rejection of Christianity shocks his devout sisters. Their desperate attempt to reconvert him ends in a surreal exorcism and tragic revelation that shatters family bonds. The play critiques Western materialism and questions cultural authenticity within the Asian American experience.

Publication: Hwang, D. (2000 2021). Family Devotions. In Trying to Find Chinatown (pp. 90–150). : Theatre Communications Group.

Author: Adam Rapp

Year: 2013

Geography: Americas > Northern America > United States of America

Synopsis: The Hallway Trilogy traces a decaying New York hallway through past, present, and future, revealing human suffering, disconnection, and decay across generations in a dark meditation on society’s moral collapse.
This trilogy contains three coherent parts：
a) Rose (Part I of The Hallway Trilogy) is set in a grimy Lower East Side tenement hallway on November 28, 1953—the day after Eugene O’Neill’s death. A delusional young actress named Rose arrives, believing O’Neill lives in apartment #10. Her presence unravels the lives of lonely, displaced tenants, revealing themes of obsession, mental illness, and postwar alienation. A haunting, bleakly poetic tale of longing, identity, and emotional decay in McCarthy-era America.
b) Paraffin (Part 2 of The Hallway Trilogy) takes place during the 2003 New York City blackout. In the same decaying tenement hallway, a pregnant woman, Margo, navigates a toxic love triangle with her heroin-addicted husband Denny and his bitter, disabled brother Lucas, a war veteran. As darkness descends, buried tensions erupt into violence, revealing haunting echoes of the past and the lingering ghost of Rose from 50 years before. Desire, addiction, and disillusionment blaze in candlelight.
c) Nursing (Part 3 of The Hallway Trilogy) is set in 2053, in a disease-free dystopia. A former tenement is now a “Museum of Disease,” where the public watches Lloyd Boyd be infected with archaic plagues. As he suffers behind glass, tended by a deranged nurse, the play explores voyeurism, dehumanization, and the loss of empathy.

Publication: Rapp, A. (2013 2021). Rose. In The Hallway Trilogy (pp. x–61). : Theatre Communications Group.