Two short plays by Richard Alleman that look at the ways people try to find peace in an increasingly chaotic and often frightening world. "Quiet Car" takes place in a designated low-noise car on an Amtrak train traveling between Washington and New York. Sparks start to fly when two unlikely characters–a buttoned-up businessman, who only wants to read his New York Timesin peace, and a scruffy drifter who craves constant attention–are forced to sit next to one another in the last available seats in the car. As the trip proceeds, their relationship becomes increasingly contentious. At the same time, strange things start happening both on and off the train, ultimately reaching a bizarre climax….The entire action of "Adrift" takes place aboard the SSUnivers, a 300-passenger cruise ship that has been converted into a private, ultra-luxurious floating condo colony, with spacious suites that serve as full-time residences for some of the country’s wealthiest and most privileged individuals. The play focuses on a wealthy WASP couple, Todd and Betsy Wentworth, whose most recent addresses were Santa Barbara, California, which they departed after an 8.0 earthquake leveled most of the city...and Palm Beach, Florida, which was hit by a series of freak mega-hurricanes that not only decimated the most fortified of properties, such as Mar-a-Lago, but also left much of the community permanently under water, despite a billion-dollar drainage system designed to keep the city safe from the strongest of storms. Like many of their class, the Wentworths—Todd especially—look upon their shipboard hideaway as the best possible hedge against a frightening dystopian world upended by environmental disasters, riots, revolutions, and nuclear incidents that have left the planet divided into separate, often well-armed, micro-states and countries. Despite the protection offered by the SS Univers, the Wentworths still have to deal with such mundane problems as estranged children and a crumbling marriage.
