''boom'' is a play by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb which premiered in 2008 at
Ars Nova Theater in New York, New York. The
Theatre Communications Group
Theatre Communications Group (TCG) is a non-profit service organization headquartered in New York City that promotes professional non-profit theatre in the United States.
The organization also publishes ''American Theatre'' magazine and ''ARTSEA ...
(TCG) counted ''boom'' as the most-produced play in the US during the 2009-2010 theatre season.
Plot summary
Jules, a grad student in marine biology, and Jo, a journalism student, meet one Saturday night in Jules’s small underground laboratory on a university campus, after Jo answers Jules’s online personal ad offering an encounter that promises “sex to change the course of the world.”
During his research on a deserted tropical island, Jules discovered patterns among the behavior of fish that seemed to portend a premature end to most forms of earthly life. So he has turned his tiny lab/apartment into a place to wait out the disaster and begin remaking humanity. A third character, Barbara, is the audience's guide in her portrayal of the end of civilization thousands of years earlier.
Production history
Developmental reading, part of The Playwrights Foundation In the Rough series, May 2007, directed by Kent Nicholson.
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Workshop production at Brown/Trinity Playwrights Rep, July 2007, directed by Ken Prestininzi.
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World Premiere at Ars Nova, New York City, March 2008, directed by
Alex Timbers
Alex Timbers (born August 7, 1978) is an American writer and director and the recipient of Tony, Golden Globe, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and London Evening Standard Awards, as well as two OBIE and Lucile Lortel Awards. He is the recipie ...
.
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Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is a non-profit theatre company located at 641 D Street NW in the Penn Quarter neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1980, it produces new plays which it believes to be edgy, challenging, and thought-provoking. ...
, Washington DC, November 2008, directed by John Vreeke.
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Seattle Rep, Seattle, WA, November 2008, directed by Jerry Manning.
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Cleveland Public Theatre
Cleveland Public Theatre is a theater and arts complex in Cleveland, Ohio, founded in 1981 by James Levin. It is located at 6415 Detroit Avenue on Cleveland's west side in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood.
Cleveland Public Theatre’s mission i ...
, November 2008.
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Shimberg Playhouse, David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts, Tampa, Florida by
Jobsite Theater Jobsite Theater is an American professional theater company incorporated in 1999 and located in Tampa, Florida, United States. They are the resident theater company of the Straz Center for the Performing Arts (formerly Tampa Bay Performing Arts Ce ...
Mar. 11 – 28, 2010.
Directed by Kari Goetz.
;Cast:
*Summer Bohnenkamp-Jenkins as Barbara
*Chris Holcom as Jules
*Geneva Rae as Jo.
Boom! by Jobsite Theater----
Off the Wall Productions, Washington, Pennsylvania. March 2011.
Directed by Michael E. Moats.
;Cast:
*Rachel Downie as Barbara
*Matt Henderson as Jules
*Lauren Michaels as Jo
Critical reception
Theater scholar Jordan Schildcrout analyzes ''boom'' as an "apocalyptic comedy" that "wrestles with dominant ideologies about sex, reproduction, and the future." In examining reviews of different productions of the play, he notes:
Most theatre critics reviewed ''boom'' enthusiastically, admiring its synthesis of farcical humor and apocalyptic themes. Many noted the “edgy” and sexy energy of the comedy, praising it as “screwball,” “oddball,” and “wacked-out,” but had difficulty articulating the play’s more thoughtful underpinnings. Ben Brantley of the ''New York Times'' astutely recognized the play’s concern with “our enduring fascination with and need for myths about the beginning of life as well as its end,” while Chris Jones of the ''Chicago Tribune'' dismissed the play because he didn’t find it “credible.”
References
{{Reflist
2008 plays
American plays