Dead Man's Cell Phone
Dead Man's Cell Phone is a play by Sarah Ruhl. It explores the paradox of modern technology's ability to both unite and isolate people in the digital age.[1] The play was awarded a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play.[2]
Dead Man's Cell Phone
Jean
Gordon
Mrs. Gottlieb
Hermia
Dwight
The Other Woman/The Stranger
June 4, 2007
English
Productions[edit]
The play premiered at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Washington, D.C., on June 4, 2007, running to July 1, 2007, and was directed by Rebecca Bayla Taichman. This world premiere production was nominated for seven Helen Hayes Awards, including a nomination for Polly Noonan who originated the role of Jean. Also featured were Woolly Mammoth ensemble members including Sarah Marshall, Naomi Jacobson, Rick Foucheux, Bruce Nelson, and Jennifer Mendenhall. The set was designed by Neil Patel.[2][3]
The play premiered Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons on March 4, 2008, and closed on March 30, 2008.[4] It starred Mary Louise Parker (as "Jean") and Kathleen Chalfant (as "Mrs. Gottlieb") and was directed by Anne Bogart.[1][5] Bill Camp was set to star as Gordon, before having to withdraw due to other work commitments, before being replaced by T. Ryder Smith.[6]
The play had its UK premiere in June 2011 at The Arches (Glasgow).[7] The production was directed by Stasi Schaeffer.[8]
Critical response[edit]
Robert Hurwitt, in reviewing a production in 2009 in San Francisco, wrote: "After one of her better plays, you exit the theater to enter a Ruhl world of ordinary people living extraordinary lives and small coincidences opening into quirky metaphysical conundrums.... Ruhl's gifts of probing humor, vivid imagination and poignant humanity are as alive here as in the luminous 'Eurydice' that Berkeley Rep took to off-Broadway and 'In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play)'."[9]