What Is the Story of Southern Discomfort?
Elisabeth Gray brings a taste of her North Carolina roots to the off-Broadway stage in Southern Discomfort. Inspired by real southerners Gray met while growing up, the intimate show is a series of short monologues. The versatile actress switches effortlessly between six zany characters from ages 16 to 92: Julia Hanover, an aspiring actress obsessed with facial symmetry; William Ernest Fells, a highly organized widower delivering his wife’s eulogy on color-coded business cards; Josh Robinson Riddle, a one-armed boy with a passion for Civil War weaponry; and more. In each short piece, Gray reveals the haunting, inner loneliness each character faces while simultaneously keeping the audience in stitches.