The Great Inconvenience
“There is a store where I buy my cigarettes. I love cigarettes. You know, they took our books so we wouldn’t know what happened to us. They took our television so they could sell us their reality. They took our internet to keep us from organizing. They took our cell service to keep us apart from the world. They took our booze to keep us from being happy. But I still had cigarettes. I love to smoke a cigarette.”
Full-length
Available for premiere
CAST: 4 women, 1 man
Nominee: 2019 Theatre Puget Sound Gregory Award, Outstanding New Play
2050. Somewhere on the West Coast of the United States. A scrappy group of historical re-enactors—orphans of our next civil war—have formed a chosen family. Abandoned by a government that no longer pretends to serve any but the rich, their survival gig is helping to whitewash some of the worst atrocities in American history for audiences of wealthy schoolchildren.
When an unexpected visitor starts camping out in their dioramas, portending a new and growing danger, they’re forced to face their own histories, and contend with the revelation that the woman they all work for is much more than just their boss.
Marty Mukhalian in The Great Inconvenience at Annex Theatre, 2018 / Photo by Ian Johnston
The Great Inconvenience had a workshop production at Annex Theatre in Seattle, Washington, July 27 - August 18, 2018. Director: Erin Kraft. Cast: Mi Kang, Jocelyn Maher, Nick Edwards, Samantha Canela, Marty Mukhalian.
An extensively rewritten draft was read as part of Sacred Fools New Works series on March 2, 2020. Director: Julia Griswold. Cast: Nancy Ma, Madeleine Heil, Ben Michaels, Alexis B. Santiago, and Lynn Odell.
An even newer draft was read as part of Seattle Public Theater’s Locally Grown series, March 8 - 20, 2021. Director: Pilar O’Connell. Cast: Mi Kang, Jocelyn Maher, Nick Edwards, Samantha Canela, Marty Mukhalian.