Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue
A Puerto Rican Marine returns to North Philadelphia with a leg injury sustained in Iraq. On the eve of his return to active duty, in his mother’s abandoned-lot-turned-garden-oasis, the family relives its happiest moments to the music of Bach preludes and fugues.
Cast Requirements
3 men
1 woman
Honors
Finalist: 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Publisher
Dramatists Play Service
Press
“Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue is that rare and rewarding thing: a theater work that succeeds on every level, while creating something new. The playwright, Quiara Alegría Hudes, who has degrees in music (a bachelor's from Yale) and playwriting (a master's from Brown), combines a lyrical ear with a sophisticated sense of structure to trace the legacy of war through three generations of a Puerto Rican family. Ms. Hudes, whose heritage is Puerto Rican/Jewish possesses a confident and arresting voice. That voice is in finely tuned form in "Elliot," at the Culture Project, which true to its title is composed like a fugue, with several strands of narrative playing in point and counterpoint around a single theme: a soldier's personal experience of war. Without ever invoking current politics, "Elliot, a Soldier's Fugue," manages to be a deeply poetic, touching and often funny indictment of the war in Iraq.”
—New York Times
Production and Development History
Written with the support of a Page 73 Fellowship.
Premiere: Page 73 Productions at the Culture Project (2006).
Subsequent productions: Alliance Theatre (2006) and others.