In Arabia We’d all be Kings

“In Arabia, We’d All Be Kings is a magnificent achievement.”
— Ricky Spears, In Theater (New York)

Stephen Adly Guirgis is one of the country’s hottest playwrights (Jesus Hopped the A-Train, Our Lady of 121st Street, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot). He was described by Bruce Weber of New York Times magazine as possibly the best American playwright under 40, adding that he “belongs on the list of accomplished young American playwrights that includes Suzan-Lori Parks and David Auburn, the last two winners of the Pulitzer Prize.”

Set around a bar in Hell’s Kitchen, the play is a portrait of life on the streets in New York during the Times Square “Disneyfication” in the Guliani-era. The characters in the play include Lenny, a recently released ex-convict; Daisy, his alcoholic girlfriend who abandons him in favor of Chinese takeout; Skank, a failed actor turned junkie and his crackhead hooker girlfriend Chickie; DeMaris, a seventeen year-old single mother; and other bar regulars. Each character uses raw, explicative-charged language particular to this group of people.