Savage in Limbo by JP Shanley

A stunning early piece of theatre with a touch of the surreal from Academy, Tony and Pulitzer Award winner JP Shanley.

Set in a bar in his hometown of the Bronx, it is a deeply personal piece – visceral, funny and intelligent; a searing examination of what it means to be stuck in 'Limbo' and an exhortation to fight for the courage to break free.

Using different aspects of himself, these discordant voices form the characters of the play, smelted with the people of his hometown of the Bronx. The “meatgrinder” as he calls it. The play is set in ‘Scales’ bar in the Bronx, 1984. It is period of extreme poverty, hopelessness, governmental distrust, racism, crime, and violence but also great passion, creativity, and community. The Bronx has burned for over a decade as those who could fled to safer boroughs as the inhumane process of ‘Redlining’ helped create exactly that for which it had been intended.

Murk, the taciturn bar owner, stands silent vigil over the drunken, slumbering form of April White, a woman once committed to the cloth, as Denise Savage storms into the bar looking for a good night out to find...nothing. Her quest to find change begins as Linda, an old school acquaintance, enters sobbing about her man Tony leaving her to be with, in his own words, 'Ugly girls'. Tony soon follows her in and with Savage as the catalyst, the characters collide like balls on a pool table desperately seeking a way out of their own personal Limbo's.

This is a play which speaks to almost all of us...a burning need to pursue our dreams and the search for meaning, identity, purpose. It serves as an examination of the chains that bind us but also the threads which connect us all...how we are all united by suffering and deep yearning: by the commonality of the human experience. Beyond this Shanley lays down the gauntlet to us as an audience…what are we going to do?

In Shanley’s own words: “Well, what are you gonna do? The place is closing up soon. What are you gonna do with your life? Are you gonna have the guts to do what's in your heart to do? Or are you gonna narcotize yourself and wait for death? What are you gonna do? Last call."