Paradise Lost

The American Century Theater presents Clifford Odets’ Paradise Lost, directed by DeAnna Duncan. The Depression and the everyday stresses of survival turn a modest two-family home into an intense cauldron of anger, passion, love, humor and frustration.

With tenderness and wisdom, the play explores the ways that financial pressures and misfortune affect relationships, values and personalities, especially in America, where upward mobility is a staple of the American Dream. The play’s characters, members of well-educated upper and middle-class urban dwellers living in New York City during the Great Depression, see their aspirations of gentility, wealth and culture undermined by the greater priorities of simple survival. Odets chronicles the struggle of decent people to hold on to basic human values as their fortunes decline.

Additional 2:30 matinees on November 28, December 5, 11, 12 and 18.