Chimes: A Monologue by Tom Cole

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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.

Tom Cole is a writer, performer and artist living in the Lower East Side and Kingston, NY. His work has been presented at Participant Inc, Thread Waxing Space, Art on Air, Dixon Place, Clocktower Gallery, ICA Boston, Performa, Howl Arts, Poetry Project, and the Boston Center for the Arts. He is a three-time MacDowell Playwriting fellow, and an Edward Albee Foundation Playwriting fellow. Tom heads the New Play Commissioning Program at True Love Productions, where he commissioned, developed and produced Heidi Shreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me (Pulitzer Prize Finalist, two Tony nominations, Amazon Prime Original), as well as commissioning and developing major works by Craig Lucas, Nathan Alan Davis, Sheila Callaghan, and others. With True Love Productions, he has worked on over 20 Broadway productions, as well as a dozen Off-Broadway events, including Well, The Flick, Sleep No More, Skylight, Shockheaded Peter, Medea and Waverly Gallery.  He co-produced ANOHNI’s Turning (St. Ann’s Warehouse) in 2004, as well as her performance Hopelessness (Park Avenue Armory) and acted as assistant director/dramaturg/actor for She Who Saw Beautiful Things (The Kitchen). He was the artistic director of the Market Theater in Boston during its acclaimed 2000-2002 seasons, where he presented new work by ANOHNI and the Johnsons, David Mamet, Ricky Jay, Ping Chong, Frederick Wiseman, and Biljana Srbljanovic. In 1991 Tom worked with Robert Wilson on his production of When We Dead Awaken, (American Repertory Theater), and from 1991-2001 assisted David Mamet on all of his major works. Tom’s writing has been anthologized in Pathetic Literature, edited by Eileen Myles, Sluts, edited by Michelle Tea, Flesh and the Word 4, edited by Michael Lowenthal, This New Breed edited by Rudy Kikel, and Flashpoint, edited by Michael Bronski.

Cover drawing by Michael Leonard