The Gulf (play)

The Gulf is a play by American playwright Audrey Cefaly. It is a recipient of the 2017 Lambda Literary Award for Drama and the 2016 Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award. The play was adapted from a one-act version, which won the 40th Annual Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival (2015). The play takes place on a fishing boat in the author's home state of Alabama.

Production highlights

London Premiere - April 2018 (Tristan Bates Theatre)
Directed by Matthew Gould
Featuring Louisa Lytton and Anna Acton

Australian Premiere - August 2017 (Camperdown, NSW)
Directed by Melissa Lethbridge
Featuring Diana Popovska and Brenna Harding

World Premiere - September 2016
Signature Theatre (Arlington, VA)
Directed by Joe Calarco.

Synopsis

The divide between Kendra and Betty mimics the very world that devours them: a vast and polarizing abyss. On a quiet summer evening, somewhere down in the Alabama Delta, Kendra and Betty troll the flats looking for red fish. After Betty begins diagnosing Kendra’s dead-end life with career picks from What Color is Your Parachute, their routine fishing excursion takes a violent turn.

Characters

• Kendra: A loner. Scrappy, dark, brutish and volatile.
• Betty: An optimist. A thinker. Restless and tender Hearted.

Awards

• Winner: 2017 Lambda Literary Award for Drama
• Nominated: 2017 Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding Original New Play or Musical (Helen Hayes)
• Recipient of the 2016 Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award
• Winner of the 2015 Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival.

Publications

• Full-Length (Samuel French)
• One-Act:
  • Off Off Broadway Festival Plays, 40th Series (Samuel French)
  • Love is a Blue Tick Hound (Samuel French)
  • Best American Short Plays 2014-2015 (Hal Leonard Corporation)

References