Corsicana & Evanston Salt Costs Climbing: two plays

Two plays by acclaimed American playwright Will Arbery, exploring communities of outsiders who strive to help one another in the face of despair.

In this two-play volume, acclaimed playwright Will Arbery explores the dynamics within tight-knit communities of outsiders working together to persevere against despair, whether intimate or cosmic. From wildly different angles, Corsicana and Evanston Salt Costs Climbing both examine the shape-shifting spectres of grief, the pull of desire and dreams, and the universal human need for receiving and giving care.

In Corsicana, in a small city in Texas, a woman with Down syndrome named Ginny and her half-brother Christopher are unmoored in the wake of their mother's death. Their close family friend, Justice, introduces them to a local artist named Lot, a recluse and outsider, hoping that he and Ginny can make a song together. Maybe that’ll help somehow.

Corsicana premiered off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons, New York, in 2022.

Evanston Salt Costs Climbing confronts humanity's darkest fears with humour, warmth and the fortitude of municipal public servants.

Winters keep getting worse in Evanston, IL, where salt truck drivers Peter and Basil battle the ice and snow and pass the time with jokes and stories. But what's with this creeping sense of dread? Is it because their boss Maiworm has noble visions of new green technology that would make their jobs obsolete? Or is there a more terrifying warning calling out from under these roads? At least they have each other, right?

Evanston Salt Costs Climbing premiered off-Broadway at Pershing Square Signature Center in 2022.