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Who Cares
It was number twenty-seven on the list:
laughingbuddhapubliciastate.jpg
Put the Buddha on the table for my wake.

A  new  comedy  about  long–term  friendship , sexual  identity ,

and  what  to  do  with  your  best  friend’s  ashes . 

 

Whatever happened to those close friends from college, the ones you spent almost every moment with, in class, in the dining hall, partying, drinking, getting high, lives entwined, discovering them, discovering yourself . . .  Wasn’t all that really important?  After graduation didn’t you see each other a lot?  At least once in a while?  But then you stopped.   And then . . .

 

It’s 25 years after college.  Four old friends – dinners, lunches, “tell me, what’s going on?” – stopped seeing each other.  Now in their 40s, the death of one forces the three remaining friends together with results that are touching, profane, farcical, and human.

 

Click here for scenes from Who Cares

 

  • David – the centerpiece, the ringleader, the “Snake Charmer,” the glue – has died.  But he wants to bring his friends together, to be intertwined in each other’s lives, and loves, and he’s found a way to do it involving his ashes and a laughing Buddha.
  • Philip is now a lawyer with an international law firm.  Married, with children, his charm and good looks only slightly faded, he has a time for extracurricular activities, but feels little need for friendship.
  • Sarah, married to an accountant, mother to a difficult 14-year-old, is a children’s book author who has almost forgotten her past as the group’s Bad Girl with a Bad Mouth.
  • Brian, a psychiatrist with a West Side practice, is a seemingly comfortable gay man whose long-term relationship has just ended.  Can his wit continue to keep him from feeling, from dealing with life?

Who Cares is a comedy that explores the effects of old friendships on the present, looks at how unfinished business from the past needs completion, how trust and lust, envy and pride, closeness and anger, sex and sexual identity can all exist within the bonds of friendship. 

Who Cares is a tightly written two-act ensemble piece for three actors.  It’s designed for one main set and two other playing areas. The play follows the old friends through 24 hours of interaction, digression, dealing with (offstage) family, and confrontation over past truths about sex, identity, love, and the meaning of life. 

 

A workshop audience member wrote: “The play is like eating a wonderful artichoke, getting to a core that is truly delicious and satisfying.”

 

 

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