A DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE TITLE

Staff Meal

Full-Length Play, Dark Comedy  /  2w, 1m, 5 any gender (adult)

Abe Koogler

Endlessly surprising and surprisingly moving, this story of two strangers who frequent the same café is a surreal dark comedy about the stories we tell and the ways we take care of each other when the world grows dark.

Staff Meal

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  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    2w, 1m, 5 any gender (adult)
  • Duration
    Duration
    90 minutes
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Experimental
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult

Details

Summary

Mina and Ben, two strangers who frequent the same café, strike up a conversation and decide to have dinner together. But something strange is happening in the city outside: The streets are empty and a bird calls a warning. Amidst this unsettling atmosphere, Mina and Ben find themselves in the only place still open: a mysterious restaurant where service is an art, the chef may be a god and food is a portal to other – better – worlds. Endlessly surprising and surprisingly moving, Staff Meal is a surreal dark comedy about the stories we tell and the ways we take care of each other when the world grows dark.

History

Staff Meal premiered off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons on 12 April 2024. Directed by Morgan Green, the production featured Jess Barbagallo, Stephanie Berry, Susannah Flood, Hampton Fluker, Carmen M. Herlihy, Greg Keller and Erin Markey.

Cast Attributes
Keywords
Performing Groups

MINA – Female, 30s to 40s.
BEN – Male, 30s to 40s.
AUDIENCE MEMBER – Female, 60s to 80s.
THE VAGRANT – Any gender, any age. Also plays CHRISTINA and GARY ROBINSON.
THE WAITER – Any gender, any age.
SERVER 1 – Any gender, any age. Also plays VAGRANT 2.
SERVER 2 – Any gender, any age. Also plays PHONE VOICE and MAN.

  • Time Period Contemporary, Present Day
  • Setting

    Various locations, including a mysterious restaurant. Any time.

  • Features Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes
  • Additional Features No Intermission
  • Duration 90 minutes

Media

“Deliciously deranged.” – The Wall Street Journal

“A quietly surreal shape-shifter of a play with a tilted sense of humor and a generous, sorrowful heart. We tumble through its funny, eerie evocation of the moment that made – is still making – our present, and we come out the other side feeling, for all its ebb toward emptiness, full.” – New York Magazine

“Scenes zig and zag in a dream logic… It’s hard to describe exactly what happens in Staff Meal, much less diminish your enjoyment of its uncanny, elegiac flux. Koogler stokes our affection for the comforts of civilization but also underscores how fragile they are. Take my advice: book a table.” – Observer

“Koogler’s brilliance as a playwright is how he captures the real while hinting at the eternal. Just when it seems like he is trying to strangle your heart with tension, he goes ahead and breaks it with simplicity.” – New City Stage

“Koogler’s characters are earnest, idiosyncratic, and suspicious of hierarchy. Often bitingly funny, Koogler’s play reveal larger truths about the economic and racial systems under which we all live.” – Yale Review

Videos

  • Staff Meal – Playwrights Horizons Trailers youtube thumbnail

    Staff Meal – Playwrights Horizons Trailers

  • Staff Meal – In Process with Abe Koogler at Playwrights Horizons, Part I youtube thumbnail

    Staff Meal – In Process with Abe Koogler at Playwrights Horizons, Part I

  • Staff Meal – In Process with Abe Koogler at Playwrights Horizons, Part II youtube thumbnail

    Staff Meal – In Process with Abe Koogler at Playwrights Horizons, Part II

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £85 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

Scripts

Available Formats:
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Authors

Abe Koogler

Abe Koogler
Abe Koogler earned an MFA in playwriting from UT-Austin's Michener Center for Writers and is a 2016 graduate of Juilliard's Playwrights Program. His plays have been developed at Kitchen Dog Theatre, the Playwrights' Center, the Great Plains Theatre Conference, and Oregon Shak ...
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