Shouting in the Wilderness
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Synopsis

Sarah and Johnny arrive at her tiny East Village Studio after work, at a theater production where they’ve recently met. She is an assistant set designer and he has a small role as an actor. When they get to the apartment he anticipates an evening of casual sex. He is soon surprised to learn that she is a conservative Christian and still a virgin at the late age of twenty-seven. A complex seduction ensues as he tries to bed her and she tries to convert him. In the midst of a hearty debate about nature and religion, they weaken to each other’s arguments.

After barely surviving an obsessive and destructive relationship brought on by his poor judgment, Johnny becomes open to the possibility of trading in his hedonistic ways for a more Christian lifestyle. She in turn is burning with long repressed desires that surface in fits and starts as a result of his gentle but coaxing touch. Two other characters, Inner and Innim shadow Sarah and Johnny and speak their inner thoughts. They highlight the frequent and humorous contradictions between what is said and what is thought. Beyond the outward push and pull between Sarah and Johnny, Inner and Innim express their internal battle, the struggle within themselves about what they will and will not do.

The situation Sarah and Johnny find themselves in, coupled with the device of their inner thoughts, offer plenty of opportunities for comedy and entertainment. Grounded in reality, the play never lets concept overshadow the intense emotion that results when two people falling in love get caught in a battle between blinding self-righteousness and the wastefulness of an over indulgent life. In this tumultuous encounter Johnny and Sarah search for faith, forgiveness, and peace of mind.

Path in the woods