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The Long Christmas Ride Home
“Brilliant . . . even more ambitious than Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive . . . it covers more ground and is bolder in its storytelling. Vogel’s language is at its most poetic, eloquent and elegiac. In fact, its vivid imagery rivals the prose style of any great American short story writer. The play sounds like it might have been adapted from a beautiful, undiscovered novella.”?New Haven Register
“One of the most absorbing evenings of theatre to come along in some time.”?Variety
Past and present collide on a snowy Christmas Eve for a troubled family of five. Humorous and heart-wrenching, this beautifully written play proves that magic can be found in the simplest breaths of life. Combining the elements of No theatre and Bunraku with contemporary Western sensibilities, Vogel’s Ride is a mesmerizing homage to the works of Thornton Wilder, including Our Town. A moving and memorable study of the American family careening near the edge of oblivion.
Paula Vogel’s plays include The Baltimore Waltz, Mineola Twins, Hot ?n’ Throbbing, Desdemona, And Baby Makes Seven, among others. Ms. Vogel will be the resident playwright during the Signature Theatre’s 2004–05 season dedicated to her works. She has taught at Brown University in the MFA playwriting program since 1985.
“One of the most absorbing evenings of theatre to come along in some time.”?Variety
Past and present collide on a snowy Christmas Eve for a troubled family of five. Humorous and heart-wrenching, this beautifully written play proves that magic can be found in the simplest breaths of life. Combining the elements of No theatre and Bunraku with contemporary Western sensibilities, Vogel’s Ride is a mesmerizing homage to the works of Thornton Wilder, including Our Town. A moving and memorable study of the American family careening near the edge of oblivion.
Paula Vogel’s plays include The Baltimore Waltz, Mineola Twins, Hot ?n’ Throbbing, Desdemona, And Baby Makes Seven, among others. Ms. Vogel will be the resident playwright during the Signature Theatre’s 2004–05 season dedicated to her works. She has taught at Brown University in the MFA playwriting program since 1985.
59 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2004
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About the author
Paula Vogel
40 books121 followersPaula Vogel is an American playwright and university professor. She received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, How I Learned to Drive.
Vogel was born in Washington, D.C. to Donald Stephen Vogel, an advertising executive, and Phyllis Rita Bremerman, a secretary for United States Postal Service Training and Development Center. She is a graduate of The Catholic University of America (1974, B.A.) and Cornell University (1976, M.A.). Vogel also attended Bryn Mawr College from 1969 to 1970 and 1971 to 1972.
A productive playwright since the late 1970s, Vogel first came to national prominence with her AIDS-related seriocomedy The Baltimore Waltz, which won the Obie award for Best Play in 1992. She is best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned To Drive (1997), which examines the impact and echoes of child sexual abuse and incest. Other notable plays include Desdemona, A Play About A Handkerchief (1979); The Oldest Profession (1981); And Baby Makes Seven (1984); Hot 'N Throbbing (1994); and The Mineola Twins (1996).
Although no particular theme or topic dominates her work, she often examines traditionally controversial issues such as sexual abuse and prostitution. Asserting that she "writes the play backwards," moving from emotional circumstances and character to craft narrative structure, Vogel says, "My writing isn't actually guided by issues.... I only write about things that directly impact my life." Vogel adds, "If people get upset, it's because the play is working." Vogel's family, especially her late brother Carl Vogel, influences her writings. Vogel says, "In every play, there are a couple of places where I send a message to my late brother Carl. Just a little something in the atmosphere of every play to try and change the homophobia in our world." Carl's likeness appears in such plays as The Long Christmas Ride Home (2003), The Baltimore Waltz, and And Baby Makes Seven.
"Vogel tends to select sensitive, difficult, fraught issues to theatricalize," theatre theorist Jill Dolan comments, "and to spin them with a dramaturgy that’s at once creative, highly imaginative, and brutally honest."[3] Her work embraces theatrical devices from across several traditions, incorporating, in various works, direct address, bunraku puppetry, omniscient narration, and fantasy sequences. Critic David Finkel finds this breadth in Vogel's career to be reflective of a general tendency toward stylistic reinvention from work to work. "This playwright recoils at the notion of writing plays that are alike in their composition," Finkel writes. "She wants each play to be different in texture from those that have preceded it."
Vogel, a renowned teacher of playwriting, counts among her former students Susan Smith Blackburn Prize-winner Bridget Carpenter, Obie Award-winner Adam Bock, MacArthur Fellow Sarah Ruhl, and Pulitzer Prize-winners Nilo Cruz and Lynn Nottage.
During her two decades leading the graduate playwriting program and new play festival at Brown University, Vogel helped developed a nationally-recognized center for educational theatre, culminating in the creation of the Brown/Trinity Repertory Company Consortium with Oskar Eustis, then Trinity's artistic director, in 2002. She left Brown in 2008 to assume her current posts as adjunct professor and the Chair of the playwriting department at Yale School of Drama, and the Playwright-in-Residence at Yale Repertory Theatre. Vogel previously served as an instructor at Cornell University during her graduate work in the mid-1970s.
Recently Second Stage Theatre announced that they would be producing How I Learned To Drive as a part of their 2011-2012 season. It will be the first New York City production of this show in 15 years.
Subsequent to her Obie Award for Best Play (1992) and Pulitzer Prize in Drama (1998), Vogel received the Award for Literature from The American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2004.
She won the 1998 Susan Smith Blackburn P
Vogel was born in Washington, D.C. to Donald Stephen Vogel, an advertising executive, and Phyllis Rita Bremerman, a secretary for United States Postal Service Training and Development Center. She is a graduate of The Catholic University of America (1974, B.A.) and Cornell University (1976, M.A.). Vogel also attended Bryn Mawr College from 1969 to 1970 and 1971 to 1972.
A productive playwright since the late 1970s, Vogel first came to national prominence with her AIDS-related seriocomedy The Baltimore Waltz, which won the Obie award for Best Play in 1992. She is best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned To Drive (1997), which examines the impact and echoes of child sexual abuse and incest. Other notable plays include Desdemona, A Play About A Handkerchief (1979); The Oldest Profession (1981); And Baby Makes Seven (1984); Hot 'N Throbbing (1994); and The Mineola Twins (1996).
Although no particular theme or topic dominates her work, she often examines traditionally controversial issues such as sexual abuse and prostitution. Asserting that she "writes the play backwards," moving from emotional circumstances and character to craft narrative structure, Vogel says, "My writing isn't actually guided by issues.... I only write about things that directly impact my life." Vogel adds, "If people get upset, it's because the play is working." Vogel's family, especially her late brother Carl Vogel, influences her writings. Vogel says, "In every play, there are a couple of places where I send a message to my late brother Carl. Just a little something in the atmosphere of every play to try and change the homophobia in our world." Carl's likeness appears in such plays as The Long Christmas Ride Home (2003), The Baltimore Waltz, and And Baby Makes Seven.
"Vogel tends to select sensitive, difficult, fraught issues to theatricalize," theatre theorist Jill Dolan comments, "and to spin them with a dramaturgy that’s at once creative, highly imaginative, and brutally honest."[3] Her work embraces theatrical devices from across several traditions, incorporating, in various works, direct address, bunraku puppetry, omniscient narration, and fantasy sequences. Critic David Finkel finds this breadth in Vogel's career to be reflective of a general tendency toward stylistic reinvention from work to work. "This playwright recoils at the notion of writing plays that are alike in their composition," Finkel writes. "She wants each play to be different in texture from those that have preceded it."
Vogel, a renowned teacher of playwriting, counts among her former students Susan Smith Blackburn Prize-winner Bridget Carpenter, Obie Award-winner Adam Bock, MacArthur Fellow Sarah Ruhl, and Pulitzer Prize-winners Nilo Cruz and Lynn Nottage.
During her two decades leading the graduate playwriting program and new play festival at Brown University, Vogel helped developed a nationally-recognized center for educational theatre, culminating in the creation of the Brown/Trinity Repertory Company Consortium with Oskar Eustis, then Trinity's artistic director, in 2002. She left Brown in 2008 to assume her current posts as adjunct professor and the Chair of the playwriting department at Yale School of Drama, and the Playwright-in-Residence at Yale Repertory Theatre. Vogel previously served as an instructor at Cornell University during her graduate work in the mid-1970s.
Recently Second Stage Theatre announced that they would be producing How I Learned To Drive as a part of their 2011-2012 season. It will be the first New York City production of this show in 15 years.
Subsequent to her Obie Award for Best Play (1992) and Pulitzer Prize in Drama (1998), Vogel received the Award for Literature from The American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2004.
She won the 1998 Susan Smith Blackburn P
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
June 4, 2022
A play to see not read? To read, it’s a dysfunctional family. On stage, I imagine the bunraku and “time stopping” can be spectacular.
July 6, 2024
A harrowing, moving family drama. Wrings the truth from Tolstoy's maxim that, "every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," The edition I read included some of Vogel's late brother's letters. He died too young of AIDS. Those letters broke my heart.
July 4, 2008
So, having directed this play, I feel I am justified in whatever rating I choose to give it. Many of the professional reviews gave it very poor ratings because it followed "How I Learned to Drive," which is Vogel's most well known piece, for sure, and probably her best. I strongly recommend "How I Learned to Drive," but it's not for everyone.
Christmas Ride takes a lot from asian theatre practices. In addition to the bunraku-style puppetry that it really wants, there are places for shadow puppetry and references to asian practices. Stephen, the main character in a lot of ways, is a boy with a fascination for all things Japanese after the preacher at his church does a christmas eve celebration that is focused on Ukiyo-E, or The Floating World.
I am glad to have been able to dig into this play, because every new production is full of things that it can teach you, but I think that if the opportunity came up, I probably wouldn't choose it again. It's very presentational, and it can be disjointed and hard to follow at times.
Oh, and the script reads kind of like a novel.
Christmas Ride takes a lot from asian theatre practices. In addition to the bunraku-style puppetry that it really wants, there are places for shadow puppetry and references to asian practices. Stephen, the main character in a lot of ways, is a boy with a fascination for all things Japanese after the preacher at his church does a christmas eve celebration that is focused on Ukiyo-E, or The Floating World.
I am glad to have been able to dig into this play, because every new production is full of things that it can teach you, but I think that if the opportunity came up, I probably wouldn't choose it again. It's very presentational, and it can be disjointed and hard to follow at times.
Oh, and the script reads kind of like a novel.
February 4, 2017
Man, Vogel does it again, y'all. This was honestly one of the most beautiful plays I've ever read. Maybe this is just my perspective as an outsider (and feel free to check me if I'm wrong), but I loved the intentionality and care with which Vogel synthesized Japanese imagery, color, movement, and sound into the piece. My favorite part of this collage was the dance that brought Stephen back to life.
Most of all, though, I admire Vogel's craft-- how she fused setting, imagery, and story to show us a really bright and simultaneously dark cross-section of this family's life. I really loved how she played around with narration and dialogue, character and avatar. She essentially built three layers of character-- one with the puppets, one with the avatars / puppet masters, and then the last with the actual voices of the characters as they spoke for themselves and to each other. She also seems to transcend time pretty seamlessly without losing story or continuity, which I found really impressive.
Um, basically? I was jealous. Why, Paula Vogel? WHY can't I have your brain?!
Most of all, though, I admire Vogel's craft-- how she fused setting, imagery, and story to show us a really bright and simultaneously dark cross-section of this family's life. I really loved how she played around with narration and dialogue, character and avatar. She essentially built three layers of character-- one with the puppets, one with the avatars / puppet masters, and then the last with the actual voices of the characters as they spoke for themselves and to each other. She also seems to transcend time pretty seamlessly without losing story or continuity, which I found really impressive.
Um, basically? I was jealous. Why, Paula Vogel? WHY can't I have your brain?!
December 21, 2021
“It’s amazing what people throw away”
It has been far too long since I’ve read one of Paula Vogel’s works and the haunting simplicity of this play was a wonderful and heartbreaking reunion. The play draws stylistic inspiration from Thornton Wilder’s “presentational” theatre and Japanese Noh and Bunraku (according to her notes on the play a “Westerner’s misunderstanding of Bunraku” and the “misunderstanding is key”). The combination of these highly stylized distancing elements, without fully formed characters for the audience/reader to become lost in, allowed the words and associated movements more weight. While much of the play has clear influences from Vogel’s own life, particularly, as with much of her work, her brother Carl (who passed away from AIDS in 1988), the lack of representational elements gives the story a universality. This play, and indeed much of Vogel’s work, is not for everyone, but I would highly recommend this for existing fans and anyone interested in modern American drama or experimental theatre.
It has been far too long since I’ve read one of Paula Vogel’s works and the haunting simplicity of this play was a wonderful and heartbreaking reunion. The play draws stylistic inspiration from Thornton Wilder’s “presentational” theatre and Japanese Noh and Bunraku (according to her notes on the play a “Westerner’s misunderstanding of Bunraku” and the “misunderstanding is key”). The combination of these highly stylized distancing elements, without fully formed characters for the audience/reader to become lost in, allowed the words and associated movements more weight. While much of the play has clear influences from Vogel’s own life, particularly, as with much of her work, her brother Carl (who passed away from AIDS in 1988), the lack of representational elements gives the story a universality. This play, and indeed much of Vogel’s work, is not for everyone, but I would highly recommend this for existing fans and anyone interested in modern American drama or experimental theatre.
Read
March 15, 2022Picked this up at a free rack outside of a library. Didn't realize/forgot Paula Vogel lived around these parts for a while.
Obviously, something is lost when reading a play about puppets, what with not actually being able to see the puppets and everything. But on the other hand Vogel is big on the stage direction / commentary, something one presumably wouldn't have access to when seeing the play performed. In fact, the play read more like a personal essay or meditation than a play's play. As someone idly curious about the various modes of play-writing and production, it was a very interesting read. It's harder for me to say whether or not I liked the play (it certainly didn't help that I didn't read it in one go) or found it successful in doing what it wanted to do. But I have to say that the section at the end of letters from her brother is unquestionably sweet, and the reason I picked the play up in the first place, as this sort of oddball mixed-genre sort of thing is not something I think is common to published scripts.
Obviously, something is lost when reading a play about puppets, what with not actually being able to see the puppets and everything. But on the other hand Vogel is big on the stage direction / commentary, something one presumably wouldn't have access to when seeing the play performed. In fact, the play read more like a personal essay or meditation than a play's play. As someone idly curious about the various modes of play-writing and production, it was a very interesting read. It's harder for me to say whether or not I liked the play (it certainly didn't help that I didn't read it in one go) or found it successful in doing what it wanted to do. But I have to say that the section at the end of letters from her brother is unquestionably sweet, and the reason I picked the play up in the first place, as this sort of oddball mixed-genre sort of thing is not something I think is common to published scripts.
December 2, 2019
Not as uplifting as I wanted it to be for a Christmas play. More of a family comedy/drama set on Christmas Eve. But two really good parts for the male and female narrators. Not sure why with the puppets--it could have been pantomime. Although, I think it would make a great readers' theater performance. (or a puppet workshop for adults)
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March 20, 2022never have i ever been this fucked up by puppets
September 19, 2023
4.5 stars // plays are poetry
September 20, 2023
[ 3.5 stars ]
December 9, 2025
Skulle jättegärna se en uppsättning av den här. Julig och skärrande. Lite konstig om hiv, men det får man kanske vara.
September 24, 2016
Vogel brings back the slide show from "The Baltimore Waltz" and the car setting from "How I Learned to Drive" for this puppet play which has more than a few exquisite moments about one not-so-happy holiday. I only wish the monologues -- the one time the three puppeteers step away from their creatures to speak from the heart -- had been more distinct from each other. It's basically the same story of rejection (with different incidental details) played out three times. Even so, it's a lovely piece of theater.
July 22, 2016
- I loved the back and forth dialogue during the first half of the play between the two narrators (and after a while the minister). You'd have to have two very versatile narrators to cover all the characters while jumping back and forth. For me it helped me get lost in the story, sort of like being on a rocking boat that puts you into a bit of a trance.
- I have a hard time picturing the puppets and the Japanese influences but I'm sure it's really cool in theater.
- I have a hard time picturing the puppets and the Japanese influences but I'm sure it's really cool in theater.
August 7, 2014
This one absolutely walloped me when I read it originally, but I haven't reread it in years. Must, must do.
The emotional ante of any play is upped about 10000% for me when you involve a puppet. I DON'T THINK THIS IS WEIRD AT ALL.
The emotional ante of any play is upped about 10000% for me when you involve a puppet. I DON'T THINK THIS IS WEIRD AT ALL.
October 3, 2007
loved this script.
I saw it performed and was not so crazy about the show. But the writing is pretty amazing.
I saw it performed and was not so crazy about the show. But the writing is pretty amazing.
August 12, 2008
best read and play i have seen in a long time. would love to direct.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews