Chimes: A Monologue

Through a striking and unforgettable performative monologue, Tom Cole’s Chimes introduces the distinctive voice of a first-person narrator mentally indexing his lifetime of memories. His individual experiences of shame, addiction, and self-destructive behavior are recounted with mischievous humor, even if they have left lasting scars. Now, after months of monotonous solitude, a storm of unresolved issues resurfaces, triggered by the incessant and irritating clang of an out-of-town neighbor’s outdoor wind chime. As his self-examinations become an obsession, feelings of alienation and unworthiness worsen and lead to unconventional solutions.

In the tradition of the plays of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Georg Büchner, Charles Ludlam, and Sarah Kane, Cole weaves the very bleakest of humor with startling and heartbreaking feats of intimate self-reflection. Speaking on issues of class, sex, intimacy, and the highs and lows of queer reality today, Chimes asks how and where one finds the answers to living a complicated life.