Synopsis: (From the Beacon Journal [Akron]): "If Oedipus Rex is a tragedy told from a man's point of view, Kent playwright Sandra Perlman claims equal time for the women in Oedipus' life and injects humor into the Greek tragedy with her play, Jocasta . . .

"With just the characters of Jocasta, her randy, overbearing mother, Ismene, and her loyal servant, Iris, Perlman sketches a complex portrait of a daughter, wife and queen who suffered in each of her roles."

From The Plain Dealer (Cleveland): "In Act 1, we find Ismene, Jocasta's mother, advising her daughter on the eve of her wedding to Oedipus not to tell her new husband anything about her previous marriage, the son who was taken away to die, that terrible prophesy. It's comedy with terrible implications. Ismene makes this casual, hilarious and horrific remark about Oedipus: 'I'm old enough to be his grandmother.'

"After the intermission, a decade later, with Ismene dead and Jocasta now aware that ignorance has ruined her, the Theban queen discovers that her woman-in-waiting, Iris, has also participated in this festival of self-deception, compounding the hurt."

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"Except for laughing a lot, no one in the audience seemed to take a breath . . . . a play that has a fresh and compelling point of view." - The Beacon Herald (Akron)

"An exemplary play that engages the heart and mind . . . . one of the finest plays I have seen this season."
- The Monterey Herald

Contact information:
Sandra Perlman
P.O. Box 906
Kent, Ohio
USA 44240-2303
Tel. Toll Free: 1-888-296-3193
Fax: 330/677-2488
Email: perl@sperlman.com
www.sperlman.com

About the Playwright: Sandra Perlman is an award-winning member of the Cleveland Play House Playwrights' Unit. She has premiered more than a dozen plays in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Cleveland. Sandra is the recipient of two Ohio Arts Council fellowships in playwriting for In Search of Red River Dog and Cliff Diving. Her ten-minute play Covers, was a finalist at the Actors Theatre of Louisville Shorts Festival and was premiered by The Cleveland Play House Lab Company in 1994. A former writer-host for PBS television Channels 45/49, Perlman has also taught and lectured about playwriting.

Jocasta was first seen at The Cleveland Play House in March, 2001.