BAD HEMINGWAY BY THE BAY, a bad memory play, written, directed, and performed by Gary De Mattei.

BAD HEMINGWAY BY THE BAY: A Bad Memory Play by Gary De Mattei — a two-act comedy-drama set in 1980’s San Francisco — recently had a staged reading in The Huron Club at the SOHO Playhouse in Manhattan.

BAD HEMINGWAY BY THE BAY is a solo performance piece about R.T. Dickman, a writer and performance artist forced to make his living in the restaurant business in order to fund his obsession to be, Bad Hemingway By The Bay!

BAD HEMINGWAY BY THE BAY is a work of fiction. It is set in the bad memory of the story teller, R.T. Dickman (Dick), an aging spirit who haunts pub theaters throughout the world to perform his legendary nightclub act, The Cold Man and the Sea.

BAD HEMINGWAY BY THE BAY is a montage of memories that make up the last few days in the life of a writer and performance artist living and working in 1980s San Francisco and forced to make his living in the restaurant business in order to fund his obsession to be BAD HEMINGWAY BY THE BAY!

BAD HEMINGWAY BY THE BAY will have a full production in New York in 2024.

BAD HEMINGWAY BY THE BAY is a heartwarming and hilarious tale of “murder and corruption and 50% off sales at Wilkes Bashford.”

A Note About The Recent Reading by Gary De Mattei
(Taken from Gary’s social media post of September 30, 2023)

I did a reading of a play on Monday and Tuesday night. The reading was in a little cabaret space in SOHO. Manhattan. The cabaret space was downstairs, below another performance space. I walked downstairs and into the space many years ago. In my mind. When I was first starting out as an actor. Years and years ago. I saw the space in my mind. And I said to friends at the time, friends who’d sit up with me for hours talking about the craft and the art and the art in ourselves and ourselves in the art— Hey, if I ever find myself in a basement theater in Manhattan doing a reading of a play I have written, and there are 5 people in the audience who’ve come into the space from out in the rain to hear me read my play, I will consider myself as having made it in this business.

On Monday and Tuesday night there were about 30 people in the club. Each night. Thirty people who came in from out in the rain to hear me read my play. They bought drinks. They laughed. They wept. They made comments afterwards. Good comments. Helpful comments about the play that has taken me 8 years to write. Fifty years to write. A lifetime to write.
The play is about many things. One is shame. Which I am a sufferer. And male infertility. Which I am a sufferer. And writing. Which I am sufferer. And performing. Which I am sufferer. And love. Which I am sufferer.
Thank you to all who came in from out in the rain to the little basement theater in Manhattan to hear me read my play about Bad Hemingway. I love you.

And thank you Caryn Hartglass for being there running the front of the house and the track and the sound effects and for loving me so unconditionally.

And thank you Barry Hartglass for the original music and the recording sessions at your brilliant studio upstate NY. (I know…”part of the job”…xoxo)

And thank you SoHo Playhouse for being there. In my mind. Or was it in reality? Or was it both? One thing’s certain, Bad Hemingway By The Bay will be back with a full production, soon.