Cost of Living (TCG Edition)

Martyna Majok

Oct 2018 · Theatre Communications Group

About this ebook

“Immensely haunting… The first of many great things about Martyna Majok’s Cost of Living… is the way it slams the door on uplifting stereotypes… Ms. Majok has engineered her plot to lead naturally to moments of intense and complicated pungency… If you don’t find yourself in someone in Cost of Living, you’re not looking.” —Jesse Green, New York Times

Winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Cost of Living deftly challenges the typical perceptions of those living with disabilities and delves deep into the ways class, race, nationality, and wealth can create gulfs between people, even as they long for the ability to connect. Eddie, an unemployed truck driver, and his estranged ex-wife, Ani, find themselves unexpectedly reunited after a terrible accident leaves her quadriplegic. John, a brilliant PhD student with cerebral palsy, hires Jess, a first-generation recent graduate who has fallen on desperate times, as his new aide.

Ratings and reviews

I really enjoyed this. I had to read it for a class, but once I got past the prologue, everything immediatley became 100% more interesting. MILD SPOILERS BELOW After you finish the entire play, I realized the prologue had way more relevance to the plot than I thought it would. It really tied the end of the story together, and it felt like a really satisfying "The end is really just a new beginning" type of ending. So even though our main characters suffer through a lot, the story leaves off on a bitter-sweet note. I really enjoyed it, and I think you will too! For 10 bucks, I'd say it's worth the read.

About the author

Martyna Majok’s other plays include Ironbound, Queens and Sanctuary City. She is the recipient of a Lucille Lortel Award, Lilly Award, Helen Hayes Award, Lanford Wilson Prize, Greenfield Prize, Jean Kennedy Smith Award, two Jane Chambers Awards, NYTW’s 2050 Fellowship, NNPN Smith Prize for Political Playwriting, and The Merage Foundation Fellowship for The American Dream. Majok was the 2015–2016 PoNY Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center and is a 2018–2019 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University.