Lonely Planet

A UNIQUELY HUMAN STORY: Jody owns a small map store on the oldest street in an American city, and is seemingly worldly and knowledgeable. Carl, a frequent visitor to the store, is a friend of Jody, and seems to lie a lot about his life and occupation. The play begins with Jody explaining how he found a chair placed in his store one day, without notice, by Carl. Pretty soon, the store is littered with chairs, and after some argument between the two, it is revealed that every chair has a special history and the mystery is solved. Written by Steven Dietz in 1992 at the height of the Aids Epidemic, "Lonely Planet" is an allegorical tale that transcends the time and place of its creation to land directly in our contemporaneous culture. Jody's self-imposed seclusion, bred from fear of what he might find outside his door if he leaves the safety of his own created world, comes face to face with the reality of what the real world has to bring him in the character of his friend, Carl. It's a long and winding road for Jody, carrying him from comedy to pathos, to absurdist existential moments and, ultimately, self discovery. Inspired by Eugene Ionesco's "The Chairs", Steven Dietz has created a beautiful tapestry depicting a longing for isolation amidst a cataclysmic cultural event woven with the threads of his friend's insistence on facing the reality of the world around him. The play is a beautifully written paean to the process of self-revelation that can only come at the most profound moment of loss.