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Failure:  A Love Story by Philip Dawkins

Purdue University Theatre, 2014

 

A Schrader Series Workshop Production with Costume Design by Amy Cole, Scenic Desgin by Kaitlin Hannah, Lighting Desgin by Jenny Rider, Sound Design by Tyler Rogers, all Purdue undergraduate Theatre Design and Production students. Performing ensemble of 14 students.

 

Set primarily in 1928, FAILURE: A Love Story is about abundant, everlasting success. Mortimer Mortimer, a young, self-made businessman first encounters the extraordinary Fail sisters in their family's clock shop. Time passes and Mortimer falls for each sister in turn as an unusual series of tragic losses ensues. Mortimer and the lone Fail brother, John N., must discover how to survive.

 

While failures abound in FAILURE—no one attains a life goal or reaches a milestone—playwright Philip Dawkins delights in making us question our perception of success by setting up one narrative expectation after another and not fulfilling but transcending every single one. And at the end, without even realizing it, without anyone ever getting married or being the first person to do anything or becoming a star, a strong, loving, new family has been formed from immigrants, strays and travelers in the new world of America. And that is the greatest success of all.

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