MOTHER ROAD

Regional Premiere! Acclaimed Mexican American playwright Octavio Solis creates an unforgettable story for the 21st century and a timely, worthy successor to John Steinbeck’s epic The Grapes of Wrath. Set almost 90 years after the Joad family’s journey west, William Joad believes he is the family’s sole descendant with no heir to pass the family’s original Oklahoma farm on to – until he discovers Martín Jode, a young Mexican American migrant worker who is descended from Steinbeck’s character Tom Joad. In a reversal of the family’s original journey, William and Martín embark on an epic trip, taking Route 66, the Mother Road, from California back to Oklahoma while forming an unexpected bond along the way. With folk-inspired music and poetry woven through the scenes by a chorus of characters they meet along the way, Mother Road reveals family mysteries and answers to long-forgotten questions in what San Francisco’s Theatre Eddys proclaims “…a must-see!” *In collaboration with Oklahoma City University.

“When the restless singing in your heart says go … look for us, the faces of the road:” – Act 1, Mother Road