Synopsis

2 men (minor roles: 2 women, 1 man)

Two cowboys are marooned on a tiny desert island, lone survivors of a sabotaged rodeo cruise ship.

To preserve their sanity, they've invented imaginary geography and instituted a system
of laws, but ultimately they go to war over their shared cowboy hat. As they rob each other of food and sleep, and their carefully constructed universe begins to unravel, each man faces his death and, in so doing, each begins examining his life.

Rex, true to traditions of the American western, is a grim loner haunted by his past. 
Cody is a rodeo clown with a lust for conversation and a gnawing curiosity about
his secretive island mate. 

For the most part, Best Enemies is a two-man play on a bare stage, with only two props-
a stick and a rock--until three characters appear during the play's final act. One is Jesus, 
who offers Rex pizza, beer, and forgiveness. The other two are Cody's former lovers: 
Lu-Ann, a rodeo groupie, and Angela, the lost love who left Cody to marry a quiet man.

"Part 'Waiting for Godot,' part 'Lord of the Flies,' with dabs of 'True West' and even 'The Big Lebowski,' Best Enemies is a buddy/enemy play thick with the rugged animosity, absurdism, and primal whimsicality of two very different cowboys forced into insularity together. Cody, a boisterous libertine of a rodeo clown, and Rex, a repressed and bigoted rancher, are an odd couple, and there is little beyond a stick and a rock to distract them from each other and themselves. And so, with great human ingenuity, they create rules, wars, affections, histories — they create, that is to say, a culture." — Portland Phoenix

Awards

• Nominated for 2007 Spotlight Award, Best Play Script

Productions

Upcoming productions

Hatbox Theatre, Concord, NH, Aug 17 - 26,  2018
Fridays & Saturdays @ 7:30pm
Sundays @ 2pm

Past productions

• Players’ Ring, Portsmouth, NH, Oct 2006
• Freeport Community Players, Freeport, ME, May 2008
• Acorn Studio Theatre, Westbrook, ME, Oct 2011
• West End Theatre, Portsmouth, NH, Oct 2011
• Portland Stage Studio Theater, Oct 2015