Zhou Wenjing

Rapture Among the Oysters Zhou Wenjing

Originally produced by playwrights Edward Albee and Lanford Wilson at Stages Repertory Theater, we are pleased to present here Tommy LeVrier's Rapture Among the Oysters.

In a situation right out of Romeo and Juliet, teens John and Marcie fall in love at a very young age, though in their case in a small East Texas town in the late 1960s.

Marcie's father, Beavo, disapproves of John's counter-culture, rock band ways. If his daughter is going to be seeing anyone, he'd rather it be Harvey, a rather mean basic sort of redneck.

The two young people's adolescence ends when Harvey and Beavo beat John up at a school dance.

John returns 30 years later to find Marcie living in an isolated Texas beach community - and married to Harvey.

Marcie has lost her beauty, but not her intelligence. But she is now an obese binge-drinker, and a prescription medication abuser, whose toxic life cocktail includes anti-depressants and a mix of agoraphobia and O. C. D.

Marcie is still in love with John, but he is no longer in love with her. On an evening of heavy drinking, the stage is set for sparks to fly between John, Harvey, and Beavo over a toxic mix of rage and jealousy. Marcie adds to John's nightmare by defending her relationship with the sadistic Harvey, telling him, "Abuse is better than alone!"

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