Stanley Bennett Clay

Ritual Stanley Bennett Clay

"Honest and unsettling." -L. A. Times "A brilliant shocker of a play." -Drama-logue "Clay's poetic, image-filled rhythmic language gives this play texture and richness." -Daily Breeze "This tremendously risky play confounds all stereotypical assumptions." -Chicago Tribune "Sets black upper crust L. A. on its ear." -L. A. Sentinel "An emotional roller coaster ride." -L. A. Weekly "If you're into denial, stay home." -Entertainment Today NAACP Theatre Award Drama-logue Award L. A. Times Critics' Choice L. A. Weekly Pick-of-the-Week Set in the 1980's, this award-winning and controversial four-character domestic drama explores the dysfunctional dynamics at work beneath an affluent African-American family's appearance of perfection. The husband & father, a lawyer, is in denial about his family crisis, and is equally detached from his ethnic soul. The wife & mother, a former actress, is on the verge of alcoholism and is threatened by her cunning daughter in the home and perhaps the bedroom. The brilliant and brooding young gay son, at odds with his father, leaves his Ivy League college to come home and save his family...by any devastating means necessary.