Hotel Room Trilogy

Barry Gifford

$27.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

QTY:

English

Seven Stories Press,U.S.
08 November 2025

Plays & playscripts

From the award-winning author and screenplay writer, a trio of one-act plays depicting the spooky, strange, and tragic passage of guests through the same New York City hotel room (number 603).

""The dialogue has the evocative spareness of Pinter, and

the

control of mood

is

menacing, mesmerizing."" -TIME

The tangible mystery of these stories is grounded in the peculiar relationships that unfold slowly, producing an unrelenting uncanny atmosphere. In each play, a family member has recently died and the survivors are left to deal with the consequences.

In ""Tricks"" Gifford approaches the psychological territory of Kafka. We meet two men looking for something more than just sex from a prostitute. Are the men two halves of a severed personality?

In ""Blackout"" Danny and Diane, an Oklahoma couple of the 1930s, cannot move beyond the grief of a personal tragedy. Refusing to accept the death of her son, Diane seeks refuge in low-level deliriums. In ""Mrs. Kashfi"" a young boy experiences a spooky visitation while his mother voyages into the sea of clairvoyance with a fortune teller. Written for David Lynch's 1993 drama Hotel Room for HBO, two of these stories, ""Tricks"" and ""Blackout"" were nominated for the Cable Ace Award.

""Gifford's night people are a strange mix of utter weirdness and bedrock humanity, rampant eccentricity, and absolute individuality. Some things in life are beyond analysis, and Barry Gifford is one of them. -Booklist

By: Barry Gifford
Imprint: Seven Stories Press,U.S.
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 230mm, Width: 136mm,
Weight: 369g
ISBN: 9781644213940
ISBN 10: 164421394X
Pages: 76
Publication Date: 08 November 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

BARRY GIFFORD is the author of more than forty published works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, which have been translated into twenty-eight languages. Gifford began his career as a poet and musician. His most recent prose works are The Roy Stories, Landscape With Traveler- The Pillow Book of Francis Reeves, and Jack's Book- An Oral Biography of Jack Kerouac. His most recent poetry collection is Imagining Paradise- New and Selected Poems (2012). Gifford lives in the San Francisco area.