"Erik Patterson's strange new play is one that takes you by surprise and ravishes you."

-Rob Kendt, Backstage West

Elliot is lost in a world of sex workers-late night house calls from hustlers and phone calls with call girls. Becky is torn between two worlds-her day job as a stripper and being a mom to fifteen-year-old Rose (a Goth girl who wants nothing to do with her). And then there's Little B, who has stripped away every piece of herself until all she has left is her obsession with Icelandic pop singer Bjork. This troubled family's shared past holds unspeakable horrors and they must join forces if they ever want to heal.

WINNER, Backstage West Garland Award, Best Playwriting

FINALIST, PEN USA Literary Award

Play Details

Yellow Flesh / Alabaster Rose is a full-length play in five acts, with one intermission.

Cast: 5 female, 4 male

Genre: dark comedy

Keywords: family, Bjork, LGBTQ, abuse, love, sex work, siblings, trauma, healing

Character Breakdown

ELLIOT, a man in his early thirties. Sometimes known as Tom.

LITTLE B, his sister, fifteen.

BECKY, a woman in her thirties. Sometimes known as Hunter.

ROSE, her daughter, fifteen.

MOM, a mother in her fifties. Named Rose Silverstein.

JUSTIN, a hustler in his late twenties to thirties.

BROOKE/KRISTEN, a phone-sex operator in her twenties to thirties.

MIKE, a hustler in his fifties.

DR. MARTIN PERKINS, DR. ALBERT ELLIS, DR. STEARN, a professor, a psychologist, and an ER doctor (all played by the same actor)

FATHER, a voice/memory (played by the same actor who plays Mike).