A SAMUEL FRENCH, LTD. TITLE

Lidless

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  3w, 2m

Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig

Fifteen years ago, Alice was an interrogator in Guantanamo Bay. The pills she took means she can’t remember what she did. Fifteen years ago, Bashir was a prisoner there. Now he pays her a visit.

Lidless

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  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    3w, 2m
  • Duration
    Duration
    90 minutes
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Docudrama/History
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult
Accolades
Accolades

  • Yale Drama Series Award for Playwriting

Details

Summary

Fifteen years ago, Alice was an interrogator in Guantanamo Bay. The pills she took means she can’t remember what she did. Fifteen years ago, Bashir was a prisoner there. Now he pays her a visit. David Hare awarded Lidless, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig’s devastating first play, the Yale Drama Series Award for Playwriting in 2009. A work of extraordinary intelligence and finely-balanced sensibility, it marries the implacable logic of a Greek tragedy with an all-too-modern setting.

History
Lidless premiered at the fourth High Tide Festival, Suffolk, in May 2010. The production transferred to the Edinburgh Festival 2010 where it won a Fringe First Award, before opening in the West End in March 2011.
Performing Groups
Alice, 25, then 40; white Texan.
Bashir, 48; Pakistani-Canadian.
Riva, 25, then 40; Iraqi Assyrian Texan.
Lucas, 40; Alice's husband, racially ambiguous. Born in Northern California, moved to Texas in his teens.
Rhiannon, 14; Alice's daughter.
Zakiyah, 22; Bashir's daughter. 
  • Time Period Present Day
  • Setting

    Various simple settings

  • Duration 90 minutes

Media

"If Henrik Ibsen had been alive in the era of Guantanamo, he’s surely have written a play every bit as scintillating as Lidless" - Scotsman.

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £55 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

Scripts

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Authors

Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig

Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig
Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's plays have received the Yale Drama Series Award, an Edinburgh Fringe First Award, the Keene Prize for Literature, the Wasserstein Prize, and the David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize. She has been a finalist for the Blackburn Prize, receiv ...
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