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This play traces the tyranny and decadence in an old New Orleans family and how that madness launches the artist into the world. In this play a critically ill young man must reject his family's fortune to pursue his precarious passion to make art.
Hearts is a contemporary romantic comedy set in a Garden District mansion in New Orleans. A young artist, Rooster Dubonnet, suffering from a terminal disease, is dazzled by love. Rooster, who has been raised by an imperious society-driven mother (Irene Dubonnet), falls in love with a New-Age nurse with ideas of reclaiming one's vitality without medicines. Hearts explores the false standards of society that make it difficult for artists to develop their talent. The play studies how far a human being will go to reclaim love. In this play we see how property is used to bait children into caged behavior. Characters represent different forces of New Orleans life: the society mother, the artist son, the New-Age nurse, the drunken nephew, and the spinster companion. All of the characters seek ways to live in the Garden District without paying the price. The companion, Oozie, and the drunken nephew Bunky - do not make life/death choices but drift through life. Hearts challenges the characters to prioritize love and goodness in a culture that champions money and greed. The play is set during Mardi Gras when a whole tradition of fun, revelry, and prestige seizes the city. A young man is caught between his dedication to his family's past and his own very different future. Satire intensifies at carnival when old and new traditions consume the family.
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It's all a game
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