Samuel D. Hunter in Five Plays 

A recipient of a Drama Desk Award, an Obie and the MacArthur Fellowship — also known as the “genius grant” — Samuel D. Hunter is a brilliant and widely produced playwright whose works are largely set in his home state of Idaho. Hunter is known for using humor and compassion to bring to life the stories of characters facing situations of social withdrawal. Seclusion and loneliness are a thread found in many of Hunter’s plays, including The Whale, perhaps his most known work, whose film adaptation won an Academy Award for the lead performance of Brendan Fraser.

Here’s a sampling of five of Hunter’s celebrated plays, each of which explores an engrossing and riveting life situation.

A Bright New Boise (US/UK)

In this dark comedy, Hunter introduces five people who seek meaning in their everyday lives through human connection. Shaped by Hunter’s deep interest in religion, the play takes place primarily in the bleak corporate break room of a Hobby Lobby craft store in Idaho. Will, who has fled his rural hometown after a scandal at his Evangelical church, comes to the Hobby Lobby not only for employment but also to rekindle a relationship with Alex, his brooding teenage son, whom he gave up for adoption several years ago. Hunter presents Will as an individual trying desperately to make things right with his son. Alex works at the store along with Leroy, his adopted brother and protector, and Anna, a hapless young woman who reads bland fiction with hopes for dramatic endings. As their manager, the foul-mouthed Pauline, tries ceaselessly to find order (and profit) in the chaos of a small business, these lost souls confront an unyielding world through the beige-tinted impossibility of modern faith.

A Bright New Boise is the work that kickstarted Hunter’s career; the play was commissioned and first produced by Partial Comfort Productions and directed by Davis McCallum at the wild project in New York City in September of 2010. The production won Hunter a 2011 Obie Award for Playwriting. Later that year, John Vreeke directed a second staging at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC.

A Case for the Existence of God (US/UK)

This heartbreaking drama explores the dynamics of friendship between two men and the challenges of achieving “normal” middle-class American goals. A Case for the Existence of God unfolds in the cramped, uncomfortable setting of a small-town office. Keith, a mortgage broker, and Ryan, a yogurt plant worker who hopes to buy a plot of land that belonged to his family many decades ago, realize they share a specific kind of sadness. Their conversation about obtaining a loan opens into a discussion about the chokehold of financial insecurity. While pondering the dynamics of the father-child relationship, the men bond over the precariousness of parenthood. With humor, empathy and wrenching honesty, Hunter commingles two lives and deftly bridges disparate experiences of marginality.

A Case for the Existence of God premiered off-Broadway at the Signature Theatre in April 2022. Directed by David Cromer, the two-person cast featured Kyle Beltran as Keith and Will Brill as Ryan. The play was recognized in 2022 as the winner of the New York Drama Critics’ Circle’s Award for Best Play.

Greater Clements (US/UK)

In Greater Clements, Hunter explores the phenomenon of social isolation. In the fictional mining town of Greater Clements, Idaho, wealthy out-of-staters have begun purchasing properties, leaving lifelong residents — largely blue-collar workers — disenfranchised and disenchanted. Practical, unpretentious Maggie, the divorced owner of a failing mine tour and museum business, cares for her troubled adult son who has moved back home. As Maggie contemplates closing her business, an old flame visits and asks her to join him in a new life beyond the desolate town’s limits. Hunter presents these two characters as victims of losing what they would call the American dream. Maggie has to weigh this tempting offer to escape her past with the responsibility she feels for her son. Through quirky humor, keen observation and deeply sensitive and idiosyncratic characters, Greater Clements explores just how bad it can be to leave one’s past behind.

Greater Clements debuted off-Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater in December 2019 under the direction of Davis McCallum. The play received honors from a number of bodies, including the Drama Desk Awards, Outer Critics Circle Awards and Obie Awards. The Washington Post wrote, “Samuel D. Hunter has created his most deeply searching play yet. You yearn for nights in the theater when the people you encounter on the stage take up residence in your consciousness.”

Pocatello (US/UK)

In Pocatello, Hunter reflects on his own childhood and how much he loved the warm feeling of family when visiting a chain restaurant. The play began as a writing exercise for Hunter but developed into a celebrated full-length comic drama. As the play unfolds, audiences meet Eddie, who manages an Italian restaurant in a small, unexceptional American city that is slowly being paved over with strip malls and franchises. But Eddie is struggling with personal challenges and can’t serve enough soup, salad and breadsticks to make his hometown feel like home. Set against the harsh backdrop of Idaho, this heartbreaking comedy is a cry for connection in an increasingly lonely American landscape. 

Pocatello was first seen off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in November 2014. Davis McCallum helmed the production, which starred T.R. Knight as Eddie and featured Jessica Dickey, Crystal Finn, Jonathan Hogan, Brian Hutchinson, Leah Karpel, Cameron Scoggins, Brenda Wehle, Danny Wolohan and Elvy Yost. Time Out New York wrote, “Skillful and moving, humanely rendered and shrewdly structured, Hunter’s writing achieves a new level of technical complexity and strikes keen, ringing notes.”

The Whale (US/UK)

Hunter sees The Whale as an examination and exploration of self-worth. On the outskirts of Mormon Country, Idaho, a 600-pound reclusive college professor hides away in his home and slowly eats himself to death. Charlie is in a never-ending situation, lonely and unable to move around. With no insurance for his care, his reality seems unsolvable. Desperate to reconnect with his long-estranged daughter, he reaches out to her, only to find that she is a viciously sharp-tongued, wildly unhappy teen. Big-hearted and fiercely funny, The Whale tells the story of a man’s last chance at redemption and finding beauty in the most unexpected of places. 

The Whale was developed in part at the Denver Center Theatre Company’s 2011 New Play Summit. The play had its world premiere at the Ricketson Theatre in Denver, presented by the Denver Center Theater Company in January 2012 under the direction of Hal Brooks. The play was then presented off-Broadway by Playwrights Horizons in October of 2012, directed by Davis McCullum. 

Notably excluded from this list are the following plays:

• A Great Wilderness (US/UK)
• A Permanent Image (US/UK)
• Clarkston (US/UK)
• Lewiston (US/UK)
• Lewiston/Clarkston (US/UK)
• Rest (US/UK)
• The Few (US/UK)
• The Healing (US/UK)
• The Harvest (US/UK)

For more great plays by Samuel D. Hunter, visit Concord Theatricals in the US or UK.