Faith, Hope and Charity

In 1968, playwrights Israel Horovitz, Terrence McNally and Leonard Melfi
were inseparable friends when they wrote their first triptych Morning, Noon and Night. More than twenty years later they decided to have a
reunion . . . on stage. Faith, Hope and Charity is the result.

In Faith, by Israel Horovitz, a group of 1960’s counter-culture writers
hold a reunion, twenty years later, in front of the statue of the Polish
King Jagiello in New York City’s Central Park. Reared in an age of sex,
booze, drugs and explicit language, the group finds that time, and the
demands of making a living, have both drained their passions and left
their dreams half-realized. But the daughter of one of them, speaking
for her own generation, confronts them with the legacy of cynicism and
hopelessness which they have passed on, whether or not they realize it.

Hope, by Terrence McNally, takes place in the same setting, but this time the central figures are a young brother and sister who have come to the
park before dawn to honor the memory of a close friend who has committed
suicide after becoming ill with AIDS. They meet a woman who professes to
be a nun in civilian clothes, a man addicted to Mahler and a chatty lady
who has come to feed the pigeons. Although they all meet by chance, and
have little in common, somehow they manage to infuse each other with a
sense of hope as the sun, at last, comes up over the quiet city.

In Charity, by Leonard Melfi, we are once again at the foot of the Polish
King. A woman swigs brandy and talks to the statue and then proceeds to
spread love and good cheer to all those she encounters in the park – in a
very unusual manner.

Faith, Hope and Charity is about reconnecting with the “faith” we once
had, the “hope” that we can all make it through our situations and the
“charity” that is necessary to reintroduce jaded urbanites to the idea of
love.

Appropriate for audiences 16 and older.