Chaucer in Rome

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Chaucer in Rome is a play written by John Guare. In some ways, it is a sequel to House of Blue Leaves[1].

[edit] Synopsis

The play is set in Rome during the Holy Year of Jubilee, which is extremely crowded with pilgrims seeking confession and absolution. The plot focuses on Matt, a celebrated painter who resides at the American Academy in Rome with his lover, Sarah, and his best friend, Pete. Sarah and Pete are both scholars; Pete is analyzing sociopolitical themes in artistic depictions of Christ's fingernails.

Matt has recently recovered from squamous cell carcinoma, and Pete and Sarah are horrified to discover that Matt's cancer was caused by his deliberate use of carcinogenic chemicals in his paintings of beautiful landscapes, as a political statement on environmental pollution. Meanwhile, Pete's life is complicated by the arrival of his parents, Ron and Dolo. (Ron is a returning character who featured prominently in House of Blue Leaves.) Pete suggests that Matt change mediums, and eventually convinces him to try film. However, when Matt decides that his newest project will be to impersonate a priest and secretly videotape the confessions of pilgrims, the results threaten to drive Pete's already unstable parents over the edge.