Butterflies and Margarine

By Oded Gross    

Butterflies and Margarine


Enjoy this audio recording by Ashland New Plays Festival. You can also listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hazel has fallen in love with John. She met John three months prior when she found him naked in a field, unable to remember anything, not who he is, how he got there or any detail about his life. John is in love with Hazel, and seems content not remembering his past, his new present has made him that happy.

Unfortunately, when a mysterious Woman enters their lives, John’s memories start slowly returning, and what they learn changes their destinies forever.

Playwright Perspective

The plot of the play, or at least the seed of the plot of the play, came to me in a dream, which is incredible considering I rarely remember my dreams. Yet I woke up one morning with this mystery/science fiction-y idea in my head and I knew I had to do something with it.

I love mystery and science fiction stories – especially when they involve characters with amnesia – which this did. So when this story rose to the surface of my subconscious, I immediately started writing. The mystery that was starting to unfold with Butterflies and Margarine was very exciting for me. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Thematically, I was equally intrigued. I often wrestle with questions like: What is my purpose? Why do we do the absurd things we do for the people we love? Where is the line that separates good and bad?

Now these very questions were finding their way into the work, and I was looking forward to getting some different perspectives on them. I was anxious to hear what my characters had to say on the matter.

Who

Hazel Vilma Silva
Woman Erica Sullivan
John Barret O’Brien
Stage directions Kyle Sanderson

Where

Set entirely in a diner, somewhere in America, present-day.

Poster art by: Dominic Shaw

Play Length: 1:19:34

Listener Reviews:

 from 1 Listener
Playwright Image

Oded’s plays have been produced throughout the United States and abroad, most notably at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Great Lakes Theater, The Theatre at Boston Court, and The Moscow Art Theatre in Moscow, Russia. His adaptations include Moliere’s The Imaginary Invalid, Goldoni’s The Servant of Two Masters and Gogol’s The Government Inspector (aka The Inspector General), for which he also wrote the music.

His play Dantino’s, an original Commedia Dell’Arte that tackles the controversial issue of gay marriage, was developed at Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Black Swan Lab and was a finalist for the 2017 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. His play Heart Attack With A Knife, a murder mystery farce, was produced at Northern Kentucky University’s prestigious Y.E.S. Festival and developed at The Workshop Theatre. Tragedy, a comedy dealing with the inevitability of tragedy, was selected for the New Plays New Jersey Reading Series at the Bickford Theatre. Butterflies and Margarine was a semi-finalist for the George R. Kernodle Playwriting Competition and selected to be part of the 2017 Renegade Theatre N.O.W. Festival. His most recent play, A Solution of Sorts, was included in the Athena Theatre Company’s new play development series Athena Reads.

His adaptations as well as his original productions have garnered numerous Critics Picks and nominations including Best Adaptation by LA Weekly, Backstage West and LA Stage Times for The Government Inspector and LA Weekly’s Critics “Pick Of The Week” for his one act The Comedy of Romeo and Juliet.

He received his degree in drama from Brandeis University. He is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild and an even prouder husband and father of two beautiful children.




Barrett O Brien
Barret O’Brien
Kyle Sanderson
Kyle Sanderson
Vilma Silva Theatrical HS
Vilma Silva
Sullivan Erica
Erica Sullivan

Butterflies and Margarine was a semi-finalist for the George R. Kernodle Playwriting Competition and selected to be part of the 2017 Renegade Theatre N.O.W. Festival.

 from 1 Listener