Red Hot Mamas: A Full-length Comedy - Paperback

by David W. Christner (Author)

Synopsis Abby Adams and Dan Casey are a couple of middle-aged empty nesters, looking forward to enjoying the first period of solitude they've had in years; however, their plans change abruptly when Abby invites her newly widowed mother-in-law, Sarah, to move in. Sarah immediately phones Claudia, Abby's mother, to tell her the "wonderful" news. Playing her trump card of guilt, Claudia masterfully maneuvers herself in the household as well, and by week's end both mothers-in-law have packed their belongings and are descending on their besieged offspring. Act I delights the audience with the difficulties that ensue once the widows stake claim in the children's nest. After a rough beginning, the mothers-in-law bond in Act II and let their spirits soar, taking up drinking, smoking, ignoring curfews and flaunting "parental" control. But is it the mothers who are out of control?History: The play initially received a workshop production at New Gate Theatre in Providence, RI as part of a new plays festival. It was subsequently produced in Canberra, Australia as part of a national "Year of the Older Person" celebration. Since then the play has had a number of sold out extended runs in theaters in the US, India, Canada and a protracted professional run at Detroit Repertory Theatre. Translations of the play are scheduled for production in Tula, Russia and Rovereto, Italy in 2016.

Author Biography

David W. Christner was born in Sweetwater, TN and raised in rural Oklahoma. He attended high school in Mountain View, a small farming community situated between the Washita River and the Wichita Mountains in the southwestern part of the state. As a Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Navy, Christner served three years at sea fighting the Vietnam War and two years ashore in Norfolk, VA. After completing his graduate education at OU, Christner settled in southern Rhode Island and for twenty years worked as a technical writer, editor and multimedia training developer for a variety of defense contractors and hi-tech multinational corporations during the day and wrote plays and novels at night. His stage plays The Wall, Bui-Doi: The Dust of Life, The Walk, Red Hot Mamas, The Babe, The Bard and the Baron, The Bitch of Baily's Beach, Ezra and Evil, What About Mimi?, and This Blood's For You have been finalists or winners in national/international playwriting competitions. Speculations on the cosmos, sex, war, religion, injustice, environmental exploitation, aging, women's issues, the homeless, the colonial slave trade and capital punishment have formed the thematic content of the plays and novels he has written so far. His plays have been produced in the U.S., Australia, Japan, Belgium, India, Ghana, Singapore and Canada. "Red Hot Mamas" was recently translated into Russian and Italian for productions in Tula, Russia and Rovereto, Italy. Christner is theater critic for the Newport Mercury in Newport, RI. "Red Hot Mamas" is one of his 20 full-length plays.