A Great Wilderness
Opening Night: January 17, 2014
Closing: February 16, 2014
Theater: Seattle Repertory Theatre
Walt has devoted his life to counseling teenage boys out of their homosexuality at his remote Idaho wilderness camp. Pressured to accept one last client, his carefully constructed life begins to unravel with the arrival of Daniel. When Daniel disappears, Walt is forced to ask for help—both in finding the missing boy and reconciling his past with the present. As penned by Samuel D. Hunter—one of the rising stars of American theatre—A Great Wilderness explores the issues that challenge all of us with gentle clarity and enormous humanity.
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February 4, 2014
Samuel D. Hunter’s play A Great Wilderness was originally written in only six days, as the inspiration had been simmering in him for some time. The play retains some of that raw energy and is a testament to the powerful places that a creative mind can go once inspiration hits. Hunter comments, “I knew the emotional journey of A Great Wilderness from the beginning. I knew what the last line was going to be. Writing the play was about writing up to that moment.” The play was refined, especially in examining the psychological journey and background of each character, which is crucial given the delicate nature of the topic—sexuality, identity, and the painful path taken by some who wish to change these things about themselves and others.
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February 4, 2014
Walking back to my car after having seen Seattle Rep’s latest production of A Great Wilderness, written by Samuel D. Hunter and directed by Braden Abraham, I was left feeling perplexed and unsure about what I had just seen. On one hand, it had some of the best acting I have seen in Seattle in a long time. The entire cast was solid, seasoned, and superb. I was equally impressed with how the script held my attention, and kept me wondering just exactly who these characters were.
READ THE REVIEWFebruary 11, 2014
There is a great paradox gnawing at the soul of Samuel D. Hunter’s new drama, A Great Wilderness. The play concerns a kind, caring man who has spent much of his life running a Christian forest retreat where troubled adolescents can feel “safe” — while he helps them root out the “sin” of homosexuality. But how can denying your true nature ever make you safe?
READ THE REVIEWJanuary 23, 2014
The absolutely stirring performances would have been enough. Even if the script for Seattle Rep’s world premiere of A Great Wilderness were just so-so the ensemble cast knocking ball after ball out of the park would have been enough to make for an amazing evening. But when you add in the fact that this new script from one of the theater world’s up and comers, Samuel D. Hunter, amounts to a subtle and gripping thing of beauty, you have an experience at the theater that you won’t soon forget.
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February 11, 2014
SEATTLE — A potent premise fails to deliver the goods in A Great Wilderness, the frustratingly limp new drama by the talented Samuel D. Hunter (A Bright New Boise, The Whale), having its premiere here at Seattle Repertory Theater. Set in the countryside in Idaho, the play opens with two characters whose relationship portends an emotionally charged exploration of a thorny subject. Walt (Michael Winters), a scruffy, amiable man in his 70s, believes that gay men and women can be turned straight. He has been running a boys’ summer camp devoted to this purpose for decades. His latest charge is the 16-year-old Daniel (an effectively fidgety Jack Taylor), who was caught looking at a gay website by his disapproving father.
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