A bus ticket home
When U.S. Marine Jenny Sutter returns from Iraq, she lays down her rifle but isn’t ready to pick up her children. Buying some time, Jenny takes a one-way trip to nowhere—a desert community where misfit residents gently nurture her wounded spirit and nudge her back to her own humanity. Award-winning Chicago director Jessica Thebus premieres Myatt’s humor-filled and tenderhearted tribute at OSF before moving the production to the Kennedy Center for a special engagement. (Strong language, mature themes)
Check out the
Learn More tab for video interviews with the playwright and director.
Active duty military, veterans and reservists receive two free tickets to this play, subject to availability. This offer cannot be redeemed on the web. To reserve your free tickets, call the OSF Box Office at (800) 219-8161 or (541) 482-4331, or visit us at 15 S. Pioneer Street. Click
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This play has been produced with the assistance of The Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays.
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Read about playwright
Julie Marie Myatt; posted with permission of American Theatre magazine.
Watch interviews with playwright Julie Marie Myatt:
Introduction and impetus for the play (2:11)
The characters (2:28)
Importance of the play (1:27)
And with director Jessica Thebus:
Introduction and brief background (2:14)
Why I love this play (4:22)
Early thoughts on the production (3:40)
Why audiences will love this play (2:07)
Play Synopsis
As the play opens, Jenny Sutter is in a hospital, about to be discharged from the Marines. She’s been serving in Iraq for a year, but was injured in an explosion while manning a checkpoint and lost part of a leg.
She says in a voice-over that she was born in Barstow, Calif., in a one-room apartment over the family’s gas station. Her father used to hold her in his arms when she was a baby and together they’d look out the window. With her mother, she liked to be held close to her chest, “heart to heart.” Jenny says she wanted different things from her parents: guidance from her father, instructions in how to love from her mother. And from God she wanted “something to believe in.”
Jenny is reluctant to go home to Oceanside, Calif., where her mother is taking care of her children. Uncertain of where to go next, she finds herself in a filthy bus station with no chosen destination and meet Lou, who’s fed up with her adventure to Los Angeles—“hell with glitter,” she calls it. When Lou buys a bus ticket, Jenny impulsively decides to tag along. The destination? Niland, the closest stop to a place called Slab City, where Lou’s been living on and off. The pair board the bus.
Jenny asks for nothing and doesn’t want favors. When she talks, which isn’t often, she’s laconic. Lou, on the other hand, is talkative. She’s also generous, offering to share with Jenny her humble accommodations – a step above camping. Jenny stays at Slab City for awhile, clamming up when others ask personal questions. Lou reports that Jenny awakens her with her nightmares, which Jenny believes. But when she tells her that those nightmares include petitions to God, Jenny scoffs.
Everyone has something personal to work out at Slab City, a former military site in the California desert, populated with a motley array of colorful characters who’ve chosen a Spartan but unencumbered lifestyle. (See Sidebar.) Now working with a resident therapist, Lou is trying to give up all her addictions, and they are legion—sex, cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, gambling, and more. Her friend, Buddy, a gentle preacher, is trying to find out who is stealing small but essential items, like soap, from the other residents.
Jenny’s initial walls slowly come down as Lou and Buddy reach out to her. He is a good listener for what little she has to say. Jenny reveals a sense of guilt for the incident that caused her injuries and unease at what her children will think of her disfigurement.
By the end, buoyed by her friends’ ministrations, Jenny has resolved something, though not neatly.