Matthew Everett

The Surface of the World - a drama in two acts - (4 men, 2 women)

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Jamison Haase as Nicholas, William T. Leaf as Seth in the May 1999 production

The Surface of the World - a drama in two acts - (4 men, 2 women) | Media List

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    Jamison Haase as Nicholas, William T. Leaf as Seth in the May 1999 production



Statement

While sorting through his childhood home after his father’s death, Nicholas Draper receives a surprise visit from his lover, Seth Lundy, a Marine stationed overseas. Seth has returned to Terre Haute, Indiana, not only to comfort Nicholas, but to inform him he’s thinking of reenlisting.

Emma Draper, Nicholas’ older sister who left home six years ago in the wake of their mother’s death, has also returned to Terre Haute. Now an AIDS widow and herself H.I.V. positive, Emma is trying to find the courage to show up at the front door and mend relations with the brother she left behind - the only family she has left.

When these people converge on the Draper home by the Wabash River one autumn evening, no one gets much sleep.

The Surface of the World is a play about shifting allegiances - romantic love, familial love, and love of country. A play about the families and homes we grow up in, and the ones we choose.

“Oh, that I could shrink the surface of the world
So that suddenly I might find you standing at my side.”
-- Wang Chien

Reviews

Developed in a workshop funded by a 1999 Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship

Finalist for the 2000 National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT