San Jose Stage Company announced today that it will continue its 30th season by presenting Reckless by Craig Lucas. Just in time for the holidays, this surreal comedy begins with a Christmas Eve event that propels the characters on a “wild journey of revelation and surprise.”
In a twist on traditional holiday fare, Reckless, from gifted playwright Craig Lucas (The Light in the Piazza, Prelude to a Kiss), is a comic fable of a modern-day Alice in a perilous winter wonderland. This surreal comedy follows the fate of Rachel, whose blissful life gets turned upside down after one fateful Christmas Eve, when her husband reveals (spoiler alert!) he has taken a contract out on her life. She flees her home and embarks on a series of misadventures that challenges her preconceptions concerning family, love and the wonders of life. Reckless is a timeless story of whirlwind lunacy, triumph and transformation – perfect for the holidays. Reckless opens November 28.
Author, director and actor Craig Lucas received a Drama Desk nomination Outstanding New Play for Reckless. Lucas has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play for Prelude to a Kiss, and he has also received a Tony Award Nomination for The Light in the Piazza (Best Book of a Musical). He has won two OBIE Awards for Best New American Play (Small Tragedy and Prelude to a Kiss). His diverse body of work has been seen on Broadway three times. His many plays include The Dying Gaul, Prayer for My Enemy, The Singing Forest, Blue Window and God’s Heart. He has written the screenplays Longtime Companion, Prelude to a Kiss, Reckless and The Secret Lives of Dentists.
“Craig Lucas has a very decided and personal kinship with lost souls adrift in the world and in Reckless, we collide with them at every turn,” explains Kenneth Kelleher, who will direct the production. “And as we meet them, eccentric and fragile, we begin, with Rachel’s help, to understand the innocence in all of us.”
Kenneth Kelleher returns to The Stage, where he has helmed over twenty productions, including Buried Child, On The Waterfront, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Wit, Biedermann and the Firebugs, Bariona, The Living and Six Characters in Search of an Author.
Kelleher invites everyone to “take a drive with Rachel through the snowy Christmases of her imagination and perhaps her salvation. And to all a good night!”
Performances are on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 pm, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 pm and Sundays at 2:00 pm. Reckless runs through December 16.