Greater Clements

by Samuel D. Hunter

In the fictional mining town of Greater Clements, Idaho, wealthy out-of-staters have begun purchasing properties, leaving lifelong residents - largely blue-collar workers - disenfranchised and disenchanted. Practical, unpretentious Maggie, the divorced owner of a failing Mine Tour and Museum business, cares for her troubled adult son, who has moved back home to recover. As Maggie contemplates closing her business, an old flame visits and asks her to join him in a new life beyond the desolate town's limits. Through quirky humor, keen observation, and deeply sensitive and idiosyncratic characters, Greater Clements explores just how hard it can be to leave one's past behind.











Genres: Plays, Drama

122 pages, Paperback

Published November 19, 2021

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is now the 13th play by Hunter for me to have read, which I think is all of his published work, so I can say I'm pretty much a fan. I wouldn't call this one of his top-tier plays - it's much longer than most of them at almost 3-hours run time, and includes some clunky exposition, which he usually eschews.

Like most of his plays, it takes place in a rural town in his native state of Idaho (where both my parents are from and I in which I used to spend summers), in this case the fictional titular city, which is closing down after a community vote to unincorporate. The main characters are 65-year-old Maggie, who runs the mining museum in town and her 27-year-old mentally ill son Jack, who conducts tours of the closed mine.

The action swirls around the reappearance of Billy, Maggie's former Japanese American swain, whom she nearly married at 17, forbidden to do so by her racist father - with his 17-year-old granddaughter, Kel. The issue I had is that there are too many stories here fighting for center stage, and the melodramatic ending gets superseded by a flashback that really should have happened earlier, and a coda that is something of a downer.

Still Judith Ivey got raves for her performance in the premiere Lincoln Center production, and she would seem ideal casting - but given the elaborate set design (necessitating a hydraulic lift in that OG production), I doubt I will ever see it performed. :-( The mixed reviews below I think are probably spot-on:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/09/th...
https://variety.com/2019/legit/review...
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article...
https://nystagereview.com/2019/12/09/...
https://www.americantheatre.org/2020/...

[Fabius Bascon III · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Kristin Koski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Relevant, inspiring, and sad. 3 adult, white females, 1 teenager Japanese-American female, 1 adult Japanese-American male, 2 adult white males.

[bookster95 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hunter's most ambitious play, and I believe it's his longest. The characters in the play do a lot telling of their backstory, but it didn't bother me too much.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this playwright a lot and I did not see this play when it was in NYC but I am seeing a play of his next month so I wanted to read this one.