Lewiston/Clarkston

by Samuel D. Hunter

LEWISTON

Alice and Connor sit by their roadside stand selling cheap fireworks while developers swallow the land around them. Promised a condo in the new development, their future is secure. Enter Marnie, Alice's long-lost granddaughter, proposing to buy the land to save her family's legacy. Marnie and Alice will become reacquainted with each other's deeply held secrets, uncertain pasts, and hopeful futures. Hunter, a 2014 MacArthur Fellowship recipient, explores the emotional frontiers of a family struggling to make a home in the vastness of the American landscape with affection, poignancy, and a profound sense of empathy.

CLARKSTON

Jake meets Chris when they are assigned to the same night shift at Costco in Clarkston, Washington. Chris has a hard life; his mom is a meth addict, and living in Clarkston has forced him down a dead-end road. He has promise, but he's "stuck." Jake went to a liberal arts school, is gay and out, but fled his Connecticut town when he was diagnosed with a fatal illness. Wanting to see the ocean, he came to Clarkston, but was sidetracked by his illness. He and Chris form an awkward bond: both are gay, but have led completely different lives. Can they learn to help each other?

Genres: Plays, Drama

162 pages, Paperback

Published September 2, 2019

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd say Lewiston is more of a 4.5, but combined, I'm happy with a 5-star rating for both! I'm gonna be lazy and just link four excellent reviews below, which do a much better job of explicating why these plays are so damn good than I could ever do - wish I had seen the Rattlesticks production, since I doubt these are going to be performed much elsewhere, sadly.


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/th...
https://www.vulture.com/2018/10/theat...
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...#!
https://newyorktheater.me/2018/11/03/...

[Aaron Piccirillo · Rating 4 out of 5]

“ever since you came here i feel like you’re like asking me for some solution to your problems, but i don’t have it. my life is pretty shitty right now too, if i knew how to make it better don’t you think i would have done it?”

overall i enjoyed the play i just wish it was a little bit longer so that there was more time to spend with the characters. i just wanted more out of the show since it felt so short and was getting really good towards the end of it. i did think the lewis and clark thing was kinda weird but i guess it made sense for the characters. also big bonus points for it being set in a costco.

[Wendell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yeah I'm afraid I don't really see what everyone else sees in these two plays. I felt like Lewiston in particular was incredibly underdeveloped. I don't think Alice and Marnie's relationship developed in a particularly interesting way and it's the entire crux of the piece. Clarkston I liked a little more - it was cute, some of the writing just felt too cheesy at parts. Jake had the more interesting premise but Chris was the more interesting character.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clarkston is a great little play. Didn’t read Lewiston yet. Might come back to it later.

[dhishfish · Rating 4 out of 5]

read Clarkston as soon as I found out Joe Locke was going to be in it and I was never going to be able to watch it 3 but beautiful play with really well fleshed out characters (to character study them as an actor would be so good) and really lovely natural writing. i always really enjoy reading about messy queer relationships so yay!

[Erin]

LEWISTON left me a bit cold. Felt incomplete, not quite fleshed out, and the ending felt contrived.
CLARKSTON was ACE playwriting. I loved it. The characters lived on the page. It moved beautifully. Gorgeous, quiet piece. Hunter at his best form.

[Paige Felger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lewiston didn’t feel quite fleshed out to me. I think the themes that are being explored in it are so important and I love that the playwright is grappling with them.

Clarkston is A+ such a gorgeous play

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved 'em.

[j · Rating 5 out of 5]

plays that make you realize this was what you were trying to write the whole time