Five of Us

Deals with the parallel lives of New York tenement dwellers,
who live next door to each other but whose paths do not cross
until one fateful moment, which spells disaster for them all

One apartment is occupied by Mark, a young writer who churns out pornography while planning the “big novel” he will someday write, and his live-in girlfriend, Lee, an anthropology grad who works as a waitress

Their next door neighbor is Herman, a mentally deficient messenger who speaks in a language all his own and amuses himself by calling 800 numbers to make hotel reservations he has no intention of keeping

When Lee is offered a chance to join an anthropological expedition to Sri Lanka, Mark is faced with a crisis — the loss of both her companionship and her income. With the connivance of his ex-con buddy, Eddie, a street-smart would-be mercenary, Mark decides to prop up his finances by robbing Herman’s apartment, in the misguided belief that the poor eccentric has been hoarding money

But, instead, what they find is the bizarre detritus of a stunted life — a life which is abruptly ended when Herman, coming upon them, is startled into a fatal epileptic fit

Fearful and guilt-ridden, Mark and Eddie try to cover their tracks — but as the play ends it is also clear that no matter how far or fast they flee they will never escape the spectre of the lonely misfit whose pathetic world they have so thoughtlessly and fatally shattered

Winner of the Obie Award

First presented Off-Off-Broadway, in New York City, and then at the Mark Taper Forum, in Los Angeles

“… it proves that he not only has a vivid imagination but that he also has an artist’s command of his craft” ~ NY Times

“… full of surprises and subversions, so that the expected keeps failing to happen, and the unexpected keeps happening, in new and absurdly ironic ways … Five of Us is several kinds of a good play” ~ Village Voice