Building the Wall

Robert Schenkkan is a Pulitzer-prize winning, Tony Award winning, Writer's Guild Award winning, three-time Emmy nominated writer for stage, television, and film. He is author of fifteen plays including All the Way, The Great Society, and The Kentucky Cycle. For film he has written Hacksaw Ridge and The Quiet American, and for television All the Way, The Pacific, The Andromeda Strain and Crazy Horse

Building the Wall is a gripping political thriller from Robert Schenkkan, a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright and Academy award nominee.2019, America. Rick is incarcerated awaiting sentencing for the crime of the century. He grants just one interview - to Gloria, an African American historian. In a world of 'fake news' surrounding one of the world's most powerful and controversial political figures, Gloria is Rick's only chance to tell his version of the truth.As their conversation unfolds, we sense that Rick's crime is serious, and that he is likely to face the death penalty. We gradually learn more, as their discussions cover corporate America, government corruption and racism.Finally the shocking enormity of Rick's crime is revealed. Building the Wall examines what happens when an ordinary person becomes a cog in a regime and how the inconceivable becomes the inevitable. It is, as described in The Times "a nervy nightmare vision of the Trump presidency reveals how banal evil can be".

A play by a multi award-winning playwright and screenwriter