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Will Eno lives in Brooklyn with his wife Maria Dizzia and their daughter Albertine. He is a Residency Five Fellow at the Signature Theatre in New York, which presented Title and Deed in 2012, and The Open House, in 2014. His play The Realistic Joneses was on Broadway in 2014 and was named USA Today’s “Best Play on Broadway” and was included in the New York Times’ “Best Theatre of 2014.” The Open House won the Obie Award, the Lortel Award, and a Drama Desk Award, and was included in both the Time Out New York and Time Magazine Top 10 Plays of the Year. His play Gnit, a loving but aggressive adaptation of Peer Gynt, premiered at the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville in 2013. Middletown, winner of the Horton Foote Award, premiered at the Vineyard Theatre and subsequently at Steppenwolf Theater and many other American theaters. His play Thom Pain (based on nothing), which was produced by The Print Room in 2012, was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize and has been translated into over a dozen languages. It was produced at the Geffen Playhouse in 2016 with Rainn Wilson in the title role. That production was also adapted for a film, Thom Pain, directed by Oliver Butler and Will Eno. Will was recently awarded the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation Award.

First published in 2017 by Oberon Books Ltd
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Will Eno is hereby identified as author of this play in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The author has asserted his moral rights.

All rights whatsoever in this play are strictly reserved and application for performance etc. should be made before commencement of rehearsal to Mark Subias, United Talent Agency, 888 Seventh Avenue, Ninth Floor, New York, New York 10106, USA. No performance may be given unless a licence has been obtained, and no alterations may be made in the title or the text of the play without the author’s prior written consent.

You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or binding or by any means (print, electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

PB ISBN: 9781786821645
EPUB ISBN: 9781786821652

Cover image by Joyce O’Connor/Radiant1

Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY.

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Characters

GUY

male, 40s-60s, youthful looking but might suddenly look gaunt or unwell, in the wrong (right) lighting.

LISA

female late 30s-50s. A warm and caring person, but not inclined toward any kind of sentimentality. Loving, and, matter-of-fact, in equal amounts.

There are some additional production notes at the end of the play.

STAGE SETTING

mainly empty except for a number of taped-up moving boxes, and a small pile of clothes. Other signs of someone packing up and moving. A wall with wainscoting or a chair rail, some specific-enough detail to suggest a particular room – maybe the common room of a hospital (probably a building from the early 1900s up to the 1950s or so). A practical electrical outlet in the wall and a dimmer switch, both in the ordinary places. A phone charger is plugged into the outlet. A doorway, somewhere off to the side and back, free-standing, perhaps with plants or small shrubs on either side of it. A calendar, hung low enough so that someone in a wheelchair could write in it, and some other ordinary things.

Wakey, Wakey received its world premiere on February 27, 2017 at Signature Theatre (Paige Evans, Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director; Jim Houghton, Founder) in New York City. It was directed by Will Eno, the set design was by Christine Jones, the costume design was by Michael Krass, the lighting design was by David Lander, the sound design was by Nevin Steinberg, the projections design was by Peter Nigrini; the production stage manager was David H. Lurie. The cast was:

GUY	Michael Emerson
LISA	January LaVoy