Tortilla Curtain

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adapted By Matthew Spangler
based on the novel by T.C. Boyle
directed by Sam Woodhouse

March 17–April 8, 2012 on the Lyceum Stage

World Premiere

Recipient of an “Edgerton Foundation New American Plays” award

The Story:

This world premiere production is adapted from the modern fiction classic by T.C. Boyle, the writer Newsweek calls “America’s most imaginative contemporary novelist.”

In the sun-baked beauty of Topanga Canyon, the lives of three people are on a collision course. Delaney Mossbacher, nature writer and staunch environmentalist, lives a tidy, comfortable existence with his wife and young stepson behind the walls of a gated hilltop community. They are living the American dream, unquestioning of their absolute right to all that they have. Cándido Rincón and his sister-in-law América, recently arrived undocumented immigrants from Mexico, live in a ravine at the bottom of the canyon, fighting the elements and tirelessly mowing lawns and cleaning houses while they save for an apartment. They cling to their vision of the American dream, which manages to elude their grasp at every turn. One summer day, Delaney, driving up the narrow, twisting canyon road, hits Cándido with his car. The lives of the two men and their families will never be the same.

Playwright Matthew Spangler is the author of the critically-acclaimed stage adaptation of the blockbuster novel The Kite Runner. Now Spangler has fashioned a rip-roaring tale that screams out, “We are all in this together!” Part satire and part parable, Tortilla Curtain is humorous and heart breaking, a story that speaks passionately to the future of California and the challenges of forming “a more perfect union” in our changing America.