'You have this idea in your head of the person you could be.'
On a journey West to rediscover himself, Jake unexpectedly meets Chris – a kindred soul working the same night shift at a Costco in a rural American town.
As their bond deepens, so does their sense of adventure. Maybe they could finally give life new meaning by chasing something more – like the intrepid American explorers who came before them. Together, they grapple with questions about sexuality, family and life's dead ends.
Samuel D. Hunter's emotionally intimate play Clarkston is a modern frontier story that blazes a trail through friendship, acceptance, love and the hope of new discoveries.
It was first performed at Dallas Theater Center, Texas, in 2015, and won a New Play Award from the Edgerton Foundation. It received its British premiere at Trafalgar Theatre, London, in 2025, directed by Jack Serio and starring Joe Locke, Ruaridh Mollica and Sophie Melville.
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'Absorbing and ultimately uplifting'
" - Los Angeles Time
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'Chamber theatre of the most deeply moving kind. By the evening's end, you'll have a palpable sense of having shared something special'
" - Hollywood Reporter
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'Samuel D Hunter gives his characters engagingly chewy dialogue and complex origins... gorgeous writing... Clarkston is lovely'
" - The Times
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'Tender and brimming with heart... The writing is subtle but blistering... unerringly truthful'
" - WhatsOnStage
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'A quietly devastating work of rare emotional depth... the kind of play that changes the way you view the world... a triumph'
" - Theatre Weekly
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'A moving story of doing male vulnerability right... we sure need plays like this on London stages right now'
" - Liam O'Dell
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'Tender and sensitive... Hunter's writing is exquisite... a thought-provoking and powerful piece'
" - All That Dazzles
