During an unspecified “government transition” in the near future, the young scholar Alejandra Cortez (no relation to AOC) returns home from Rhinebeck on an extremely rainy night and stumbles into a West Village café where she was once a regular during the Second Trump Administration. But aside from the rowdy RPG players, what happened to all the colorful eccentrics? Why does nobody remember the history of Café Gluck aside from an overworked barista named Sporschill? Who is the strange new owner claiming to be a “crypto king”? And why doesn’t anybody remember the charming and eccentric old bookseller Jaime Abrego Mendel who set up shop in the adjacent card room every day? This full-cast 332 track standalone epic examines the true human cost of removing vital figures from American life. (Running time: 54 minutes)
Written, produced, and directed by Edward Champion
Adapted from the short story “Buchmendel” by Stefan Zweig
Original music soundtrack by Edward Champion
(You can listen to the soundtrack on YouTube. Subscribe to @finnegansache.)
CAST:
Alejandra: Belgys Felix
Mendel: Wolf Reigns
Florian: Zack Glassman
Standhartner: Sally Maitland
Sporschill: Julie Chapin
Ramirez: Melissa Medina
Dirks: Luvelle Pierre
Tallis: Jack Ward
Becky: Emily Carding
ICE Officer: Will Billingsley
ICE Officer #2: Frank Romeo
Felicia/The Radio: Samantha Jo
Clueless Customer: Glenn Kenny
The New Yorkers: Heath Martin and Pauly Sinatra
Boris: Pete Lutz
DM: Dr. Implausible
The Staffers: Ella Gans and Jay Silver
Victim: Zoraya Christian
Exuberant Customer: Lokia Rockwell
Café Patron: Laura Spear
and Edward Champion as The Assassin.
This is a co-production of The Sonic Society and The Gray Area.
Café songs licensed through Epidemic Audio
Editing, sound design, mixing, foley recording, engineering, and mastering courtesy of an eccentric bald man in Brooklyn who buys and reads far too many books
Special thanks to Jack Ward, Russ Marshalek, Laura Spear, Spacebar Recording, and Penny House Café for their incredible generosity and support during the making of this production.
This production is dedicated to the many innocent and hardworking immigrants in the United States who are presently facing some of the most disturbing authoritarianism in this nation’s history, as well as the late beloved bookseller Michael Siedenberg.
