Upper West Side empty nesters Ken and Cynthia hit a deer while driving to their weekend house in the Poconos. Cynthia tries desperately to nurse the dead animal back to life as Ken fights for his first weekend alone with his wife in twenty-five years. As their lifeless, bloody new pet takes over their lives, Ken and Cynthia will either rekindle their love or kill each other. Deer is a grisly play about normal people who snap.
Deer is published by Dramatists Play Service.
A reading of Deer was presented in 2013 at New York Theatre Workshop with Alison Fraser and Chip Zien, for whom the play was written.
Deer received its world premiere in March of 2017 at Stage West in Fort Worth, Texas.
Lisa Fairchild and John S. Davies in Stage West's production of Deer, directed by Garret Storms
Photo credit: Evan Woods
"Mark takes us down a number of bizarre and grotesque paths, finding humor in possibilities that are alarming and marvelously distasteful. Strangely enough, the more we play along with this creepy joyride, the more resonant and valid it feels...Deer channels sinister wisdom, the kind of frustration that fuels giddy, mind-bending humor."
- Sharp Critic: Christopher Soden, April 1, 2017
Under the title CERVUS, Deer made its international premiere in Italy in October of 2019.
