Full-length play

The Bronxville Trilogy (Abridged),

or Marriages of Inconvenience

A Play by William Ivor Fowkes

 

Three married men pay the price for leading double lives in a time of social change.

 

This play condenses all 3 plays that form THE BRONXVILLE TRILOGY into one full-length play and presents the stories of three married couples in Bronxville, an affluent suburb of New York City. All three husbands are closeted gay men whose wives don't know the truth of their situation. THE BRONXVILLE TRILOGY (Abridged) spans 30 years of sweeping social changes for gay people.

 

Graham Walker and Dan Carlsen, two best friends and lovers since college, struggle with their desire to be together in a world where marriage to women is the unquestioned norm, and the AIDS epidemic makes living out of the closet a frightening option. Their solution is to marry women, start families, and live as next-door neighbors while continuing their relationship in private. This strategy works surprisingly well--until Dan dies in a plane crash. Meanwhile, neighbor Chip Miller secretly acts out in increasingly dangerous ways, ultimately almost dying after being attacked at a gay sex club. In the aftermath of their divorces, newly-out Graham and Chip embark on a relationship made all the more challenging by their very different histories and conflicting approaches to navigating their new gay lives.

 

Vignettes scattered throughout the play depict other couples in similar circumstances but different times.

 

Full script available at the National New Play Network's New Play Exchange (NPX). Click here.

LENGTH: 2 hours 50 minutes  

CAST: 7 actors (4M, 3F) playing 21 roles. 

 

SETTING

Sissinghurst Castle, England; New Haven, CT; Boothbay Harbor, ME; Manhattan; Bronxville, NY; The White House; Provincetown, MA.

 

TIME

1862-2000 and beyond

 

MAIN CHARACTERS

Graham Walker. Investment banker from Westport, CT. Articulate and intense. 19-48

Chip Miller. Senior executive at a packaged goods company. Ages from 28 to 42.

Dan Carlsen. Lawyer from Fargo, ND. Athletic and boyish. 19 to 44.

Kitty Walker. Book editor, then stay-at-home mom. Attractive and shy. 28 to 44.

Debbie Carlsen. Advertising account exec, then stay-at-home mom. 28 to 44. 

Sally Miller. Chip's wife. Good at taking charge of things. 28 to 39.

 

+ 15 additional characters