Boys in the Basement is a story about divorced men trying to cope, often badly, with the pain and loss that divorce brings. It’s an unapologetic look at divorce from a man’s perspective, one rarely if ever conveyed on the stage before.
The characters all live in the same suburban apartment building and get together to rink and swap stories in a room just outside their basement laundry room. Why a basement?
Well, when I was divorced back in 1993, I found myself living in a tiny efficiency apartment with no one to talk to or have a drink with. I would go downstairs to a dank laundry room and sit in a chair wishing I had friends, any friends, who could understand. Friends I had while married invariably picked sides in the divorce and so drifted away from me at the time. Others I was simply too ashamed to call.
I began wishing I had buddies in the building to commiserate with, and there was born the idea for my play. I eventually did develop a network of divorced men friends. Many of the trials and tribulations in the play were inspired by them.
Performances will take place at the Noyes Cultural Arts Building (adjacent to the Noyes purple Line stop in Evanston) Friday and Saturday, Nov. 6,7, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 8, at 3 p.m. Performances also will take place the same times the following weekend, Nov. 13-15. For ticket information, go to Brown Paper Tickets.
Special ticket prices are available for Friday evening shows for those who have been through or are going through the pain of divorce a well as for adult children of divorced parents. Click here for details.
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