''The Woolgatherer'' is a

play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * Pla ...

William Mastrosimone William Mastrosimone (born August 19, 1947) is an American playwright and screenwriter from Trenton, New Jersey. He attended high school at The Pennington School and received a graduate degree in playwriting from Mason Gross School of the Arts, ...

. It originally premiered at the Theatre at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

in 1979. It was printed in 1981. The play is William Mastrosimone's first play. It has been produced a number of times and has won awards, including the L.A. Drama Critics Award in 1982.

Plot

It is a two-act play, set entirely in a small apartment in

South Philadelphia South Philadelphia, nicknamed South Philly, is the section of Philadelphia bounded by South Street to the north, the Delaware River to the east and south and the Schuylkill River to the west.five-and-dime A variety store (also five and dime (historic), pound shop, or dollar store) is a retail store that sells general merchandise, such as apparel, automotive parts, dry goods, toys, hardware, home furnishings, and a selection of groceries. It us ...

behind the candy counter. She dreams of true love and how she'll meet a man one day who is perfect for her. Cliff is a foul-mouthed, wise-cracking transcontinental truck driver who gets stuck in town when his truck breaks down. While he is waiting for his rig to be repaired, he wanders into Rose's store looking for a one-night stand. Rose then invites him over to her apartment and they start to argue about issues like her old and cranky neighbor and her boarded up window. Towards the end of the play, the reader finds out that Rose does a number of strange things including putting on perfume and a hair ribbon before going to sleep. Cliff thinks that another man is there, so he forces himself in and looks around expecting to find a lover, but instead finding a collection of men's sweaters in her closet. He soon finds out about her weird collection of men's sweaters. Earlier in the play, Rose recalls a story from her past. She was watching some birds at the zoo, when a group of boys started antagonizing her and throwing stones at the birds. The boys kill the birds, she panics and the police come and take her to the hospital to calm her down. Hints throughout the play suggest that the boys did more to her than talk dirty and kill the birds. It is a possibility that the birds were a metaphor, and the boys actually raped or hurt her physically. Like the birds, her spirit or some part of her could have been metaphorically "killed". This point in the play is when you can really start to tell that Rose is mentally unstable. Despite their differences, the two characters end up falling in love at the end of the play.

References

American plays 1979 plays South Philadelphia Philadelphia in fiction {{US-theat-stub