Akedah: the Binding

The Promise, the Promise, the Promise . . .

A casual barstool conversation with a mystery man--perhaps a Las Vegas bigwig, perhaps a sociopath--hooks chronic loser Vern McGurren on the chance of a lifetime, requiring a road trip from Chico CA across Yosemite and Death Valley to the monumental stone outcrop of New Mexico's Shiprock. It's a chance to bridge the gap between a desperate father and suicidal son who know each other too well, but it veers into an hallucinatory replay of the Biblical Abram/Isaac sacrifice.

Four voices tell the story. At the center is the father, Vernon McGurren, a middle-aged Walmart employee and chronic loser making a last, fierce grab for self-respect. His teenage son Zach, gifted and suicidal, is torn between love and loathing for his father. The gritty mother Merna, left behind in a single-wide trailer--the 21^st Century nomads' tent--faces the daily grind while grappling with dread. And the inscrutable instigator Stubblefield--perhaps a sociopath, perhaps a Las Vegas bigwig, perhaps Yahweh Himself--pulls all the strings.

Conrad Bishop & Elizabeth Fuller's plays have been produced Off-Broadway, in regional theatres, and in thousands of their own performances coast to coast. Their public radio series Family Snapshots and Hitchhiking off the Map have been heard nationally. Their books include three other novels, a memoir, and two anthologies of their plays.