When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? is a play by Mark Medoff.
The setting is Foster's Diner, a New Mexico rest stop that lost most of its clientele when a new highway bypass opened. Employees include restless cook Stephen, nicknamed Red Ryder, mousy waitress Angel, and their no-nonsense boss Clark. Lyle, owner of the adjacent filling station, stops in on occasion to break the monotony with his cheery banter. The boring routine of the daily grind is disrupted with the arrival of two couples, the upscale Richard and Clarisse, and the younger and wilder Teddy, an unbalanced Vietnam War vet, and Cheryl, his hippie girlfriend. Complications arise when illegal drugs and guns enter the picture, and Teddy resorts to physical, mental, and emotional torture when he holds everyone hostage.
The first of Medoff's plays to receive a New York City staging, it opened on December 6, 1973 at off-Broadway's Eastside Playhouse, where it ran for 302 performances. The cast, directed by Kenneth Frankel, included Kevin Conway and Brad Dourif. Medoff won the Village Voice's Obie Award for Distinguished Play.
The 1979 film version, adapted by Medoff and directed by Milton Katselas, starred Marjoe Gortner, Candy Clark, Lee Grant, Hal Linden, Peter Firth, Pat Hingle, Audra Lindley, and Anne Ramsey.
