Jen Silverman: Three Plays

by Jen Silverman

Three plays about transformation, intimacy and power from award-winning American Playwright Jen Silverman. Contains the plays The Roommate; The Moors and Collective A Play in 5 Betties.Collective A Play in 5 Betties - Five different women named Betty collide at the intersection of anger, sex, and the “thea-tah”, falling in love in unexpected ways.The Moors - Two sisters and a dog living on the bleak English moors, and dreaming of love and power, are surprised by a sudden arrival. The Moors is a dark comedy about love, desperation, and visibility.In The Roommate a middle-aged housewife makes a new friend with a big secret. A dark comedy about what it takes to re-route your life - and what happens when the wheels come off.

Genres: Plays, Theatre

392 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 24, 2018

About the author

Jen Silverman is a New York-based writer. Born in the U.S., she was raised across the U.S., Europe and Asia. Her theatre work includes The Moors (Yale Repertory Theatre premiere, off-Broadway with The Playwrights Realm, Susan Smith Blackburn finalist); The Roommate (Actor’s Theatre of Louisville Humana world premiere, multiple regional productions including South Coast Rep, SF Playhouse and Williamstown Theatre Festival, upcoming at Steppenwolf); Phoebe In Winter (Off-off Broadway with Clubbed Thumb); Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties (Woolly Mammoth premiere); and All the Roads Home, a play with songs (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park premiere).

Jen is a member of New Dramatists, a Core Writer at the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, an affiliated artist with SPACE on Ryder Farm, and has developed work with the O’Neill, New York Theatre Workshop, Playpenn, Portland Center Stage, The Ground Floor Residency at Berkeley Rep, and the Royal Court in London among other places. She’s a two-time MacDowell fellow, recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts grant, the Helen Merrill Award, an LMCC Fellowship, and the Yale Drama Series Award. She was the 2016-2017 Playwrights of New York (PoNY) Fellow at the Lark. Jen has a two-book deal with Random House for a collection of stories (The Island Dwellers, pub date May 1, 2018) and a novel. Education: Brown, Iowa Playwrights Workshop, Juilliard.

Reviews

[Eli · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I saw The Moors in a theater, it almost broke me. I was confident that merely reading the script wouldn't have nearly the same effect, but halfway in I was bent over in my chair, dry sobbing. And that was just the beginning—there are two other plays in this volume, both remarkable, both of which I feel I must now see performed or I will die. Jen Silverman has a unmatched talent for understanding the ways that people connect or don't, and for capturing it in a language that swings crazily and joyfully between the stark, poetic, and absurd. I've never read anything that demonstrates this much awareness of how people work. I am going to reread these plays tomorrow, and may read them again the day after. Maybe I will read them every day from now on. Maybe I will buy a plane ticket to Illinois so I can see The Roommates . I am delirious. Six stars.

[Ashley Lyon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jen Silverman is quickly becoming one of my favorite playwrights

[jessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

individual ratings-

the moors: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
the roommate: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
collective rage: ⭐️⭐️

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Moors: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Roommate: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Collective Rage: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

If you have the opportunity to see The Moors somewhere, take it.

[Yourfiendmrjones · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s ironic. I wanted to read this as a friend of mine directed Silverman’s The Moors and I had heard of the Betties play as well. And it turns out that neither one engaged me as much as the middle play in this collection- The Roommate. The discoveries the two characters make in the play, the fears and melancholy they deal with on the way to those epiphanies, of course the characters themselves… all of it seemed to have the most realistic stakes and the most supported actions of any of the three plays.

I loved The Roommate. I cared about the two women.

Collected Rage and The Moors… I think I would need to see productions of them to appreciate them more. They feel too cute and almost sketch-like in their structures. And when I say “sketch,” I mean both comedically and as half-formed, incomplete ideas of plays.

[Adrian Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jen Silverman has such a strong voice that is lent perfectly to eccentric female characters. Each of her creations have strikingly distinct voices, but they all share a determination for something bold. It is empowering to read so many different ideas and perspectives that are each as poignantly grasping as the next. Mostly spoken by ladies!!! Thank you for these beautiful plays, and here's to many more!

[Ross Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Silverman has a very distinctive, original voice and I love it. I'd read "The Moors" previously and was delighted to read it again. The Mastiff and the Moorhen are so funny and so moving, and the arch dialog of the humans reminds me a bit of the current hit "Wednesday" but with more real feeling.

I also enjoyed the other two pieces. 'The Roommate" seems like a great piece for women of a certain age who no longer get juicy roles and this one has lots of bits to sink your teeth into. "Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties" was fun, but also had the feel that it was slightly out of it's time, that it belonged more to an era like the 1970s and was trying to break taboos that don't really exist any more.

[Niels Truman]

The Moors was by far my favorite. A stunning story about loneliness and human (and animal) nature, and the desperate things we do to escape our circumstances. Also the melding of genre and the fun it had with Victorian tropes was very successful. The Roommate was fun and definitely a great play for actors but I wanted it to go further. Collective Rage felt hollow to me and the world was way too vague and open - it lacked specificity. I wasn’t charmed by the whimsy and didn’t find it that funny. The playwright’s note says “do not eschew the human, raw, and sad” but I didn’t find much human, raw, or sad in the characters - to me, they didn’t transcend archetype. But still a fun idea and I’m sure a blast on stage.

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Moors was haunting and fascinating. It hit deep emotional notes while being innovative with setting and form. I can't get it out of my head and I think the ending broke me.

The Roommate's character arcs and dialogue were really fresh and surprising and intriguing.

Collective Rage: A Play in Five Betties isn't one that I would personally seek out to see on stage, but it did have an interesting concept, some insightful passages, and absolutely no fear of chaos or pushing all the boundaries.

[Abby Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

funny funny funny!!!

The Moors — eerie, somehow sexy, london foggy vibes.

The Roommate — simple, innnocent, dangerous, celebratory! older women reclaiming their lives or reshaping past decisions.

A Collective Story of Rage told through 5 Bettie’s (Or 5 Bettie’s) — HILARIOUS MUST READ! So so good. Have to care about the Betty’s in order to really understand the humor :)

[Madilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Moors is easily my favorite play in this collection. I love it. I saw it a few years ago and it absolutely stuck with me as one of my favorites. Jen Silverman can create mood SO well. That said the other two plays didn’t blow me away as I was hoping. I think Jen Silverman is a very unique playwright with a unique vision but it’s maybe not one that I’m into.

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

Her depiction of uninhibited thoughts, and love, is p spot on and intriguing.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved these. Wow. So many surprises. I am hoping to see any one of them on stage.

[Lisbeth Bartlett · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wildly inventive and brilliant playwright.

[Liza · Rating 5 out of 5]

unreal. the moors was my favorite by far.

[cleo · Rating 5 out of 5]

and they were roommates
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.oh my god they were roommates


had to perform the roommate play and it was so good love this book!!