Taken as a whole, The Gary Plays presents a portrait of economic and spiritual distress in the contemporary urban wilderness of the City of Angels. In Tirade for Three, Gary, an actor, comes to terms with the senseless and random murder of his son. Then, out of work and destitute, Gary conveys his son's ashes to the sea in a shopping cart in Gary's Walk. In Girl on a Bed, he ponders the death of a high school girl who walks fearlessly into lethal realms of pornography and drugs. Other characters reoccurring throughout the three Gary Plays include two former wives, his former agent, and Antonio, a Latino angel of death.

Accompanying Gary is a chorus of inner voices, refracted aspects of his psyche that give voice to the various characters he encounters and articulate his fears, griefs, and aspirations.