A MAP OF VIRTUE by Erin Courtney

Part interview, part comedy, part middle of the night horror story, A Map of Virtue is a perfectly symmetrically-structured play guided by a bird statue. An unlikely friendship between Mark and Sarah develops when he gives her a small bird statue during a chance encounter.  Although inextricably linked, they remain strangers (she’s married, he has a boyfriend) until they are forced, along with Sarah’s husband Nate and Mark’s boyfriend Victor, to share a frightening weekend in a cabin deep in the woods that derails into a quiet, pitiless nightmare. The play is a meticulously symmetrical arrangement of themes, organized around seven virtues which are announced by the narrator – the tiny statue of a meadowlark. "Though it begins as a quirky meditation on chance and symmetry, Ms. Courtney's drama soon reveals itself as one of the most terrifying plays of the past decade.” (Alexis Soloski, The New York Times)