The Dark at the Top of the Stairs April 15, 2007

Set in a small Oklahoma town in the early 1920's, this play tells the story of a middle class family torn apart by economic forces, social upheaval, violence and sexual trauma. It centers on Rubin Flood, who after losing his job as a traveling salesman for a harness manufacturer, finds himself pulled in several directions at once -- looking for new employment while trying to deal at once with a wife who shuns intimacy and mistakes his joblessness for stinginess; a shy teenage daughter preparing for her first dance; and an introverted son who runs to his mother instead of confronting local bullies.