Tom Walker

by John Strand

Set in America's early colonial period, Tom Walker is "deep and provocative, smart and funny, finely crafted" (The Washington Post), a tale about one man's journey to hell and back. Tom, a chronically unemployed fiddler, is given the chance of a lifetime to turn his woeful fate around when he meets the devil in a dismal swamp outside Boston. Tom bargains away his soul for riches, and in the process, loses his wife, his friends and all joy in living. When the devil arrives one night to claim Tom's mortal life and send him off to hell, Tom is unexpectedly given another chance to solve the mystery of this devil's true identity and reclaim his own soul. Full of stunning plot twists, the play offers up "a juicy web of deception and revenge" as we follow Tom's journey through an early American underworld of fugitives and runaways. Critics in Washington and Los Angeles called the play "wily and penetrating, richly entertaining…crowd-pleasing in the best way," "spooky and roaring fun," and "one of those rare experiences in theater, an almost perfect marriage of language and craft a must-see!"

82 pages, Paperback

First published June 27, 2002