Adam Thomas
← Work

THE GREAT AMERICAN HANGOVER

by Tom Simmons · Directed by Adam Thomas

Ry thinks he found a friend. Lou thinks he found a guy he went to school with.

Three scenes, three years. Summer 2000: a party in Commack, one in the morning, two kids walking out into quiet streets toward a White Castle with a ten dollar bill on a dare. September 11th, 2001: Ry is a bike messenger, calling Lou from work, needing to say something and not saying it, until Lou finally tells him the truth. Summer 2003: a Target parking lot and a shopping cart.

The inciting incident isn't the party. It's Ry's father missing his graduation and not picking up the phone.

Lou is not the villain. Protecting that was most of the work. He's insecure and loud and he buys friends with a beer, and he's right when he finally says it out loud — they never chose each other, they were just near each other.

The tension is sameness. Two Long Island kids with money, whose future was supposed to be arranged for them, in a world that stopped being clear. Radiohead as a class marker, not a mood. Laughs to break the dread.

It ends with an apology and a hug. Ry exhales. He's over his hangover.

The question I want them chewing on: is a good relationship what you accept, or just whoever happens to be standing nearby?

An actor leans over a white plinth on a bare stage beside a speaker on a stand.
An actor stands alone on stage holding a phone to his ear.
The phone call.
Three members of the company outside the venue under string lights.
The company, after.

These are the only images from this production, and they're small. Better ones would let this page carry more.