The Mercy Seat

A man and his mistress ponder their futures the day after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in this play by the author of Reasons to Be Pretty.

"Neil LaBute is the first dramatist since David Mamet and Sam Shepard—since Edward Albee, actually—to mix sympathy and savagery, pathos and power." —Donald Lyons, New York Post

In a time of national tragedy, the world changes overnight. On September 12, 2001, Ben Harcouort finds himself in the downtown apartment of his lover, Abby Prescott—who also happens to be his boss. His endlessly ringing cell phone haunts their conversation as Ben and Abby explore the choices now available to them in an existence different from the one they knew the day before. Will Ben let his family know he's alive, or will he and Abby takes this chance to create a new life for themselves?

The Mercy Seat continues Neil LaBute's unflinching fascination with the often brutal realities of the war between the sexes and explores whether one can be truly opportunistic in a time of universal selflessness.

"The Mercy Seat is . . . the work of a master."―John Lahr, The New Yorker

"LaBute [is] our American Aesop, a mad moral fabulist serving stiff tonic for our country's sin-sick souls." —John Istel, American Theatre