Thomas Bradshaw

Purity Thomas Bradshaw

Dark Satire

Characters: 5 male, 3 female (Some doubling possible)

Modular sets

In Purity, a refined and prominent African-American English professor's life is turned upside down when a new, 'more black' professor is hired in his department and challenges his authenticity, his marriage to a white woman, and his entire way of life. This way of life consists of literature, booze, cocaine binges, and pedophilia. From realism to fantasy, Purity takes us on a journey from the Ivy League to the ante-bellum South to the fields of Ecuador and back again, ending on a note of shocking violence.

"Thomas Bradshaw's "Purity" lures you with a goofy, comic touch, and he and the game, energetic cast can make your laughs catch in your throat." - The New York Times

"Authentically hard-hitting and provoking...... Thomas Bradshaw wants to use the theatre to poke and prod his audience away from complacency and toward social action... It's work that's designed to make us think and feel after we leave the theatre; that's got to be a good thing." - Nytheatre.com

"A whip smart exercise in sublime discomfort..... Squarely confronting social taboos, Purity unabashedly raises incredibly relevant questions about race in contemporary America -- but don't expect Bradshaw to offer any answers. Instead he opens a Pandora's box of power, exploitation, and fantasy, handing it over to us to make of it what we will." - Backstage

"Purity finally achieves the trifecta of what it had been after all along - it frightens, it provokes and it causes contemplation. For those who have pushed through the more repellent moments of Purity, there is something satisfying here." - American Theatre Web

"Vicious and harrowing... a profoundly disturbing play" -New York Sun

This play contains scenes of a graphic sexual and violent nature that may not be suitable for all audiences.