In this compelling and thought-provoking drama, the author of Hurlyburly again explores the struggle between hope and anguish in the human spirit. Goose and Tomtom, two small-time jewel thieves, are united in a strangely unsettling friendship cemented by their constant struggle to prove to themselves and to others how tough they are. Lorraine, Tomtom’s girlfriend, joins them with her own sexual and emotional weapons, and when her jewels turn up missing, she goads them into new and riskier plans.

But the pair’s frantic scheming has already begun to betray them in mysterious ways. A former friend’s sister, the prize in one of their power games, suddenly appears bound and gagged in their closet. And as their fear and their greed for power increases, they find themselves trapped into a murder and a gang war over which they seem to have no control.

Or do they? In the constantly surprising world of Goose and Tomtom, David Rabe’s language creates and re-creates reality with a magician’s deftness, dramatizing with force and insight the danger in the power of illusions—and the illusion of power.