'Things of Dry Hours is a beautiful, brave and devastating play . . . No one writes about politics, history and all that's hidden underneath better than Naomi Wallace. Ferocious, tender, whimsical, tough, brutally direct, poetically elusive, her voice is utterly unique and essential.' TONY KUSHNER

There is always a knock at the door. And you know it's the knock at the door that you've been telling yourself you haven't been waiting for all your life . . .

Alabama. 1932. In his log cabin, Tice reads from two books. He swears by his Bible and dreams of spreading the word of Karl Marx. His daughter Cali no longer dreams. Her world extends no further than the washing of sheets for rich white folk.

They wake in the night to an ominous knocking at their door, and an enigmatic stranger enters their lives who intends to turn their worlds upside down. Will this lead to Tice's version of heaven or Cali's dream of hell?

Things of Dry Hours premiered at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in February 2007 and transferred to The Gate Theatre, London.