3C
The war in Vietnam is over and Brad, an ex-serviceman, lands in L.A. to start a new life. When he winds up trashed in Connie and Linda’s kitchen after a wild night of partying, the three strike a deal for an arrangement that has hilarious and devastating consequences for everyone. Inspired by 1970s sitcoms, 1950s existentialist comedy, Chekhov and Disco anthems, 3C is a terrifying yet amusing look at a culture that likes to amuse itself, even as it teeters on the brink of ruin.
Cast Requirements
3M, 3W
Set Description
Unit set
Publisher
Theatre Communications Group (upcoming, 2014)
Press
"Mr. Adjmi is one of several adventurous young playwrights now ... who rather than avoiding clichés are embracing them to find out what enduring truths and lies still lurk beneath their threadbare exteriors. Sometimes, as in Mr. Adjmi’s “3C”, this can bear revelatory dividends."
Ben Brantley, New York Times
"Joltingly funny."
Backstage
"Bitterly funny and inventive...Adjmi’s script, quick-cutting from dopey to deranged in seconds, is intensely funny and unnerving in equal measure."
(Four Stars, Critic's Pick)
David Cote, Time Out
"Sharp edged, discomfiting...funny and clever."
Jennifer Farrar, Associated Press
"Terrifically twisted."
(Best of 2012)
Brandon Voss, The Advocate
"Sitcom farce returned as tragedy in David Adjmi’s hilarious and discomfiting vivisection of fear and loathing..."
(Top Ten of 2012)
Adam Feldman, Time Out
"3C is the best play I’ve seen all year. It’s not just great, it’s Capital-G Great, and absolutely outstanding Theatre." New York Theatre Review
"The Freudian takes an altogether more punishing twist in David Adjmi’s smart and well-written “3C”... The psychological stasis that Adjmi captures with such skill is the bright doom of an unexamined life."
John Lahr, The New Yorker
"Fascinating... Adjmi invents a whole new sub-genre: the sitcom, if you will, of pain."
Peter Marks, Washington Post
"Sharp, darkly hilarious... one of the best productions of the season, and one of the saddest"
(Top Ten of 2012)
Elisabeth Vincentelli, NY Post
"Some playwrights can both bruise and massage your soul, and if Edward Albee and Harold Pinter lead the category of writers whose whipcracking vigor can feel punishing at times, David Adjmi, whose play 3C is currently on view at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, also belongs to that group. His mixing of realism and absurdity evokes Albee, but kicked into a higher gear..."
Ella Bittencourt, Slant Magazine
"...filled with emotional shifts that swing rapidly between the hysterically funny and the horrifying."
(Editor's Pick)
Flavorpill
"... a first-rate play that digs its nails into our motives for watching comedy."
Scribicide
Production and Development History
Readings: Playwrights Horizons and Clubbed Thumb (2011). World Premiere: Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre (w. Piece by Piece Productions) (2012)