Late: a cowboy song

by Sarah Ruhl

This play is for all the lady cowboys of heart and mind who ride outside the city limits of convention. Mary, always late and always married, meets a lady cowboy outside the city limits of Pittsburgh who teaches her how to ride a horse. Mary's husband, Crick, buys a painting with the last of their savings. Mary and Crick have a baby, but they can't decide on the baby's name, or the baby's gender. A story of one woman's education and her search to find true love outside the box.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, LGBT, 21st Century, Queer, Drama

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Sarah Ruhl (born 1974) is an American playwright. She is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award for a distinguished American playwright in mid-career.

Originally, she intended to be a poet. However, after she studied under Paula Vogel at Brown University (A.B., 1997; M.F.A., 2001), she was persuaded to switch to playwriting. Her first play was The Dog Play, written in 1995 for one of Vogel's classes. Her roots in poetry can be seen in the way she uses language in her plays. She also did graduate work at Pembroke College, Oxford.

In September 2006, she received a MacArthur Fellowship. The announcement of that award stated: "Sarah Ruhl, 32, playwright, New York City. Playwright creating vivid and adventurous theatrical works that poignantly juxtapose the mundane aspects of daily life with mythic themes of love and war."

Reviews

[Seyed Mohammad Reza Mahdavi · Rating 1 out of 5]

آواز یک کابوی
سارا رول
ترجمه مازیار معاونی
نشر افراز
تعداد صفحات : 101

[Grace Leneghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

So simple and yet beautifully constructed. I love Ruhl's creativity. The quick progression of scenes depicting the passage of time through holidays was brilliant.

[Kelly Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

could be gayer

[pretzelholic109 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars.

I wish it was even gayer and even cowboyer.

Nice.

[arden · Rating 4 out of 5]

masc lesbian cowboy>>>

[Julia Bartow Fuchs · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought they were going to fall in love. Did they? I actually don’t know.

[Edward Bromberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love Sarah Ruhl. There is something implicitly Pittsburgh about the play. I see turtle creek, or homestead. the factories the way they were when I lived there in the early seventies, Carnegie Museum where I went to look at paintings. This play was written early 2000’s but should be set ca. 1973.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I tore through this in the length of a round-trip commute to the East Bay, and a little sitting on the edge of a flower box.

I find Sarah Ruhl to be easy reading, smooth. The lines seem clear but there's always something beneath too, which makes it exciting to think about settling in with. And there are playful elements too - like the non-naturalistic kalidiscople of holidays that move the story through time.

I'd like to be a part of this show, or at least to see it live. To hear the cowboy songs and to watch things fall apart before they come back together again.

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

A serviceable play, though lacking in specific character development and without the creative and inventive spark that one finds in the best of Ruhl's work. You get the feeling that she knows what she's tackling but just can't seem to quite get around the more conventional elements of the plot. Not her most solid work (though the "holidays" section makes quite a lovely piece of theater in and of itself.)

[Gabriel Armstrong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why can’t everything ever written feel exactly like this

[Sean Aiken · Rating 5 out of 5]

out of the collection i read this in, this was the one i expected the least from, but i actually really loved it. it definitely felt the most grounded out of all the sarah ruhl plays ive read. i really like the difference between how mary acts with crick and red. crick was a very interesting character in general to read, and i thought their relationship was really well written

[Cynda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I understood the humor and the pain. I enjoyed the characterization of cowboy. I throughly heard the three main speakers--one speaks slowly, one speaks fast, one speaks at an in-between rate. Language and how it is used often entertains me. But K cannot find anything in this play to make it particularly worthwhile.

[Tom Houlton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Empty characters and pretty empty story. Some nice ideas about the struggles of being in love and some strong, naturalistic dialogue to support it, but overall a little weak.

[Jessica Whittemore · Rating 3 out of 5]

The three characters are interesting. I would've liked to hear even more from Mary. Or had a Red spin-off where I can see what she does throughout a typical day.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

wow i love lesbian cowboys

[Grace Wagner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heavy-handed in some areas and lacking in others. Not my favorite Ruhl play.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Kate O’Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in San Fran in jan, it has what power of the dog wants 🤠👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩

[Billycongo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. I guess I can see why she got the MacArthur Grant. Complex, funny, dark. She puts a lot in her plays. We read the plays aloud, and that's a great way to get a lot of enjoyment out of them.

[Castor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite of Ruhl's works, but still a good script. You really feel something specific about each of the characters.

[Cora Dwyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

i loved the representation of female cowboys. i loved the use of the word cowboy as a gender-neutral term ("i told you. she's a cowboy"). truly, i only wish it was gayer!

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gay cowboy play? You had me at yeehaw.

[Jacob Henkoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another one I think I’m just too vanilla to appreciate/understand.

[Jason Sweeten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple, sad, well-written. Makes me want to write a hundred plays.

[Julia Bartow Fuchs · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought they were going to fall in love. Did they? I actually don't know.

[Gareth Davies · Rating 1 out of 5]

Seems very slow and very abstract.
I feel so bad for Crick, but also he seemed almost unreal, his character seemed too exaggerated.
The ending is too anticlimactic.
I wish they would’ve delved more into the themes of gender because they had such good opportunities to do so.

[Lukas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm really liking the dramatic style of Ruhl. It seems that her plays are poetic and highly depend to be seen in person. I would love to see a production of this in the future. Cannot wait to read my next Sarah Ruhl play!

[Gwyneth Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️3.5. Technically a re-read but I needed to refresh before my scene study class starts Monday. I prefer this to a lot of other plays by Ruhl but it still contains the quality of something lacking that I find in a few of her works. I think her plays are meant to be onstage rather than read.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another poetic gem from Ruhl's seemingly inexhaustible imagination.

[Irma Mayorga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elegant, moving.