The Glory of the World

The Solo cups are overflowing at the centennial birthday festivities of renowned mystic and Catholic monk Thomas Merton, author of The Seven Storey Mountain. In this explosive celebration from legendary writer-director duo Charles Mee (Big Love) and Les Waters (Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice), 17 men in party hats assemble somewhere between Trappist monastery and plywood warehouse to toast Merton’s many faces, asking: What makes a man? What makes a saint? What if nothing is sacred—and everything is?

As the night devolves, each facet of Merton’s contested image—silent monk, poet, spiritual anarchist, Buddhist thinker—inspires more speeches, slow dances, makeouts, fist fights, and silent reflections, amassing a layered portrait of what it is to be a human being, full of contradictions and brimming with life.