A devastating, elegant, and gripping dissection of the American dream, Adam Rapp's
Nocturne
signals a brave new voice in American theater.
"Fifteen years ago I killed my sister."
So begins Adam Rapp's highly acclaimed play
, in which a 32-year-old former piano prodigy recounts the tragic events that tore his family apart.
With a keen eye for human relationships and a deft ear for language, Rapp explores the aftershock of this unimaginable event. The father is so incapable of forgiveness he puts a gun in his son's mouth; the mother so shattered, she deserts the family and eventually takes leave of her sanity altogether; the son—only 17 years old at the time—sets out for New York City. There, he seeks an uneasy refuge in books and reinvents himself as a writer. Across the decade and a half that follows he tries to cope with the ramifications of his own anguish and estrangement while making a desperate search for redemption.