From the award-winning author and screenplay writer, a trio of one-act plays depicting the spooky, strange, and tragic passage of guests through the same New York City hotel room (number 603).
“The dialogue has the evocative spareness of Pinter, and [the] control of mood [is] menacing, mesmerizing.” —TIME
The tangible mystery of these stories is grounded in the peculiar relationships that unfold slowly, producing an unrelenting uncanny atmosphere. In each play, a family member has recently died and the survivors are left to deal with the consequences.
In "Tricks" Gifford approaches the psychological territory of Kafka. We meet two men looking for something more than just sex from a prostitute. Are the men two halves of a severed personality?
In "Blackout" Danny and Diane, an Oklahoma couple of the 1930s, cannot move beyond the grief of a personal tragedy. Refusing to accept the death of her son, Diane seeks refuge in low-level deliriums.
In "Mrs. Kashfi" a young boy experiences a spooky visitation while his mother voyages into the sea of clairvoyance with a fortune teller.
Written for David Lynch's 1993 drama Hotel Room for HBO, two of these stories, "Tricks" and "Blackout" were nominated for the Cable Ace Award.
“Gifford’s night people are a strange mix of utter weirdness and bedrock humanity, rampant eccentricity, and absolute individuality. Some things in life are beyond analysis, and Barry Gifford is one of them." —Booklist
The author of more than forty works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, which have been translated into over twenty-five languages, BARRY GIFFORD writes distinctly American stories for readers around the globe. From screenplays and librettos to his acclaimed Sailor and Lula novels, Gifford’s writing is as distinctive as it is difficult to classify. Born in the Seneca Hotel on Chicago’s Near North Side, he relocated in his adolescence to New Orleans. The move proved significant: throughout his career, Gifford’s fiction—part-noir, part-picaresque, always entertaining—is born of the clash between what he has referred to as his “Northern Side” and “Southern Side.” Gifford has been recipient of awards from PEN, the National Endowment for the Arts, The American Library Association, the Writers Guild of America and the Christopher Isherwood Foundation. His novel Wild at Heart was adapted into the 1990 Palme d’Or-winning film of the same name. Gifford lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
View titles by Barry Gifford
From the award-winning author and screenplay writer, a trio of one-act plays depicting the spooky, strange, and tragic passage of guests through the same New York City hotel room (number 603).
“The dialogue has the evocative spareness of Pinter, and [the] control of mood [is] menacing, mesmerizing.” —TIME
The tangible mystery of these stories is grounded in the peculiar relationships that unfold slowly, producing an unrelenting uncanny atmosphere. In each play, a family member has recently died and the survivors are left to deal with the consequences.
In "Tricks" Gifford approaches the psychological territory of Kafka. We meet two men looking for something more than just sex from a prostitute. Are the men two halves of a severed personality?
In "Blackout" Danny and Diane, an Oklahoma couple of the 1930s, cannot move beyond the grief of a personal tragedy. Refusing to accept the death of her son, Diane seeks refuge in low-level deliriums.
In "Mrs. Kashfi" a young boy experiences a spooky visitation while his mother voyages into the sea of clairvoyance with a fortune teller.
Written for David Lynch's 1993 drama Hotel Room for HBO, two of these stories, "Tricks" and "Blackout" were nominated for the Cable Ace Award.
“Gifford’s night people are a strange mix of utter weirdness and bedrock humanity, rampant eccentricity, and absolute individuality. Some things in life are beyond analysis, and Barry Gifford is one of them." —Booklist
The author of more than forty works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, which have been translated into over twenty-five languages, BARRY GIFFORD writes distinctly American stories for readers around the globe. From screenplays and librettos to his acclaimed Sailor and Lula novels, Gifford’s writing is as distinctive as it is difficult to classify. Born in the Seneca Hotel on Chicago’s Near North Side, he relocated in his adolescence to New Orleans. The move proved significant: throughout his career, Gifford’s fiction—part-noir, part-picaresque, always entertaining—is born of the clash between what he has referred to as his “Northern Side” and “Southern Side.” Gifford has been recipient of awards from PEN, the National Endowment for the Arts, The American Library Association, the Writers Guild of America and the Christopher Isherwood Foundation. His novel Wild at Heart was adapted into the 1990 Palme d’Or-winning film of the same name. Gifford lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
View titles by Barry Gifford
