Evelyn in Purgatory

When a complaint is filed against one of the 70,000 teachers in New York’s public schools, they are sent to a Reassignment Center, an empty office in the Department of Education Building. They must wait for their case to be reviewed, usually for months. Sometimes for over a year. A claim of improper behavior by a failing student lands Evelyn Reid in “the rubber room,” where she encounters a group of teachers, some guilty, some not, who have long since lost any hope of returning to a classroom. Over the course of the school year, these colleagues learn French, workshop a screenplay, and ultimately form an unlikely alliance, reminding each other of forgotten passions, emerging to face life outside in unexpected new directions. A poignant and funny drama, Evelyn In Purgatory is “an uncommonly smart and restrained commentary on the public education system.”