SYNOPSIS:

Cell is a stage play that premiered in a mystery festival in Kentucky. It was nominated for an Edgar and it's published by Samuel French: http://www.samuelfrench.com/p/836/cell-klass Someone wrote to me about turning it into a film -- and I began to see that it would work well. This play is murder mystery – to about the same extent that Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex is a murder mystery. It is probably as close to a Greek tragedy as this playwright will ever write, though it has its comic moments. Lt. Rodriguez questions Dennis Kadman about his older brother Michael, who has OD'd on heroin in Dennis's apartment. Dennis is still in shock; he himself wants to know how Michael was able to do it. Who gave him the drugs? Yes, Michael was an addict, and manipulative and cunning. But he had lost both his legs to diabetes, had been placed in his younger brother’s care by the courts – and Dennis was determined to keep him alive and drug-free. Through flashbacks, we see how fractious the relationship of the two brothers was, and how they interacted with various other "suspects," including Edith, the Jamaican nurse who believed that if Michael wanted to die, Dennis should let him die; Julie, Dennis' fiancee who hated what Michael was doing to Dennis and to their relationship; and Byron, Michael's homeless friend with whom he had lived on the street in the past. In ACT ONE, there is always a LIGHTS UP and LIGHTS DOWN between the scenes in the police detective's office and the brothers' NYC apartment. In ACT TWO, Dennis wanders back and forth between the two spaces, as Rodriguez questions him, as he is lost in thought . . . as he mourns the brother he loved and worshiped and resented and wanted to please, and wanted to change and to control. Like Oedipus, while looking into the murder mystery, he learns far too much about himself. This play was produced once in 2008, and in 2009 was one of three plays nation-wide to be nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award. It is published by Samuel French, and therefore licensing for a stage production ultimately has to be through them.