Before The Hot l Baltimore (1973) or Talley’s Folly (1979), Lanford Wilson was honing his craft in tiny Greenwich Village lofts and coffeehouses. Home Free! was his first professionally produced play (Caffe Cino, 1964), written when he was 27. It emerged from the same bohemian ferment that birthed Sam Shepard, John Guare, and Doric Wilson (no relation). These playwrights rejected the well-made, realistic drawing-room comedies of Broadway, instead embracing minimalist sets, elliptical dialogue, and the fractured inner lives of society’s outsiders.
Home Free! is a disturbing, beautiful, and short trip into hell. But as Lawrence says at the end, just before the final blackout: "We made it. We made it home free." Whether you are an actor learning the lines or a student writing a paper, getting the script legally is the only way to stay "home free." home free lanford wilson pdf
Wilson wrote the play as a reaction to the sanitized domestic comedies of the 1950s. Home Free! asks: What happens when the family unit collapses, but no one leaves the building? Before The Hot l Baltimore (1973) or Talley’s
Lawrence, a former teacher now stripped of his position and seemingly his sanity, spends his days building structures (often represented by blocks or makeshift constructions) and obsessing over a past that may or may not have happened the way he remembers. He is the patriarch of this isolated kingdom, ruling over his sister with a mix of love and tyrannical control. It emerged from the same bohemian ferment that
For those searching for a PDF version of the script, it is important to understand the play's publication history. Home Free! is frequently published alongside its companion piece, The Madness of Lady Bright. Together, these plays represent Wilson’s early mastery of the "lyric realism" style that would later define his Pulitzer Prize-winning works like Talley’s Folly. Because the play is still under copyright, most legitimate PDF versions are available through digital licensing platforms like Concord Theatricals or through academic databases like Drama Online.
Word count: ~1,150