2014 Fiction

The Glory of the World

Mee, Charles L.

A series of toasts to Thomas Merton on the occasion of his 100th birthday erupts into a raucous party. 17 men in party hats toast Merton’s many facets, asking: What makes a man? What makes a saint? What if nothing is sacred and everything is? As the night devolves, each facet of Merton’s contested image—silent monk, poet, spiritual anarchist, Buddhist thinker—inspires more speeches, slow dances, makeouts, fist fights, and silent reflections, and considers how we can live fully in all our contradictions, and leap into the unknown. A layered portrait of what it is to be a human being, full of contradictions and life. [14 actors]