The Sleepers by Matthew Gasda
A Contemporary Tragedy in a Classic Style
Four New Yorkers' paths collide in the days ahead of the 2016 election. Dan teaches Marxism while secretly courting a student. His girlfriend Mariko, an actress, finds refuge in her dying mentor's bed. When her sister, Akari, arrives from LA—in flight from her own dead-end romance—she becomes the unwitting witness to their mutual destruction . . .
In crystalline prose, Gasda maps the territory between who we pretend to be and who we are—and how far we are willing to go when we think the internet isn't looking. The Sleepers, a ruthless portrait of educated Millennials who know better but act worse, throws a jagged, electric light on how desire upends our carefully curated social personas.
Author
Matthew Gasda grew up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. A dramatist, novelist, and poet, he is the author of fifteen plays and counting, including the acclaimed underground hit Dimes Square. He lives in New York City.
Praise
"Gasda has a deft, humorous touch and a rare talent for steering large numbers of characters.”―Vulture
"The plays never feel self-indulgent or claustrophobic. Instead, they are intelligent, light-footed, and witty. . . . Essential to Gasda’s work is its willingness to skate in the direction of thin ice."―First Things
"Gasda has an ear for repartee as sharp as Henri Cartier-Bresson’s eye for immortalizing the 'decisive moment' in a photograph."―The Millions
"Matt Gasda is such an incisive playwright, I hesitate to chuck more adjectives in his direction—what if they're the wrong ones? His work is funny and lovely and human in the best way. Perhaps we are, as Nate from Dimes Square says, 'living through the dumbest time in human history,' but here are four retorts."—Sloane Crosley, author of Cult Classic and I Was Told There'd Be Cake
“Life and art tangle stickily together in these plays. Gasda holds a powder-smudged mirror up to our self-obsessed age.”—Matthieu Aikins, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of The Naked Don't Fear the Water
