A new play by Garrett Anderson

The Last Slice

Thanksgiving Day, 1978 · Denver, Colorado

A traditional Thanksgiving. Almost.

Follow the readings Back the play
The play

Dinner is at four.

On Thanksgiving morning, 1978, in a kitchen in Denver, Margaret Hanson is giving her mother a perm at the sink, and her son Miles is right there helping, fetching towels, hunting for coffee that isn't there. He's the child who got stuck holding down the family when his sister, Nina, left this house at thirteen and never regretted it. Her visits home are rare. This one is mostly for him. His boyfriend, Eli, is coming to dinner as a “friend.” By the time one last slice of pie remains on the plate, everyone in this family will know who Miles really is. Who the rest of them are gets discovered on stage, one serving at a time.

When the Hansons sit down to dinner, it's in the middle of a precise sliver of American history. Sixteen days earlier, California voted down the Briggs Initiative, a McCarthy style crusade that would have stripped dedicated teachers of their careers. Four days after these dishes are cleared, Harvey Milk will be assassinated. Nobody at this table knows that yet. The audience does, and it changes everything about watching a young man say the words “San Francisco.”

The Last Slice is a two-act play for seven actors. It's funny the way real families are funny: nobody is telling jokes, and everyone laughs anyway. It hurts the way only a family can hurt, with a compliment that isn't one, a gift that says too much, and a truth that finally gets said out loud at the table. The script is available on request.

“You've spent your whole life trying to fix something that was never broken.”
Nina Hanson-Jones, Act I
From the script

Page forty-seven

Act One. A game of SORRY! at the kitchen table. Eli has been making polite conversation with Mums.

ACT ONE · THE KITCHEN TABLE

Mums

You have quite the political ambitions. I'm a rebel rouser myself. I registered as a republican so I could get on the water board.

Eli

Well...I don't know that they can be considered “ambitions”. I just want to do my part. So you're a democrat?

Mums

Heaven's no.

Eli

That'll keep them guessing.

Margaret

Bob, could you set the table?

BOB doesn't move from his chair. The football game remains on.

Eli

My mom always says that change doesn't happen from being quiet.

Mums

Who said anything needed to change?

Eli

Well some people think that there's plenty of change needed. I don't know about you, but...

Mums

Some people just want to feel protected. And I for one wouldn't mind a little morality making a comeback. I like that Anita Bryant woman, there's someone who knows where to draw the line.

Nina

She does not know where to draw the line.

Eli

Protected from what?

Beat.

MUMS draws a card. She looks at it.

Mums

From confusion.

She turns the card so the table can see it. It's a SORRY! card. She reaches across the board, lifts MILES's pawn, the one he just got out, and sets it back to Start.

Mums

Sorry.

Silence. MILES looks at his pawn. Back at the beginning.

Cast of characters

Seven places at the table

Miles HansonEarly 20s

Margaret and Bob's adopted son. Closeted, thoughtful, observant.“I am someone.”

Margaret HansonMid 50s

Miles and Nina's mother. Controlling and self-justifying, certain she has always been a good mother.“There are just certain things we all just have to live with.”

Bob HansonMid 50s

Miles and Nina's father. Quiet, watchful, checked out. When he finally speaks, he means it.(Watches the game. Says nothing.)

Nina Hanson-JonesMid 20s

Miles's older sister, also adopted. Direct, funny, unsentimental. She left home at thirteen and never regretted it.“She's more tolerable at a distance.”

Eli WeissLate 20s

Miles's boyfriend. Teaches high school civics in San Francisco. Jewish, warm, and unwilling to be invisible.“I always play to win. Take no prisoners.”

MumsMid-to-late 70s

Margaret's mother. Charming, imperious, and cruel with a smile.“You don't know how the world works, buddy boy.”

Pop-PopMid-to-late 70s

Margaret's father. Nearly silent and easily overlooked, but always in the room.“This game will grow hair on your chest.”

What happens next

One table down. Two rooms to go.

1

Table Read: Private Home

Middlebury, Vermont · July 28, 2026

The Hansons' story, told where it happens: at a table. A full cast, scripts in hand, no staging. The readers fell for the family, and for Margaret most of all.

Done
2

Backer Readings: Los Angeles & New York

Dates to be announced

Small rooms, invited guests: the producers, investors, and industry people who decide what gets carried the rest of the way. A casting director is on board for both. If you want to be in one of those rooms, say so. There's a seat.

In planning
★

A Full Production

The goal

The whole downstairs in a single frame, in the tradition of the great 1970s sitcom sets, so the audience can see the whole family at once: who's talking, who's pretending not to listen. One corner holds Miles's old bedroom. Seven actors. A story most audiences have already lived some version of. It belongs in a room where a thousand people can sit at the table together.

Backing the play

A note from the playwright

Thank you for reading this far! The play has been to its first table, and now comes the part I can't do alone: getting it heard. The first reading happened in Middlebury, Vermont on July 28. The readers fell in love with the Hansons, and with Margaret most of all, so much so that I'm back inside the script making some exciting changes. Los Angeles and New York are next, with a casting director now on board for both.

If you'd like a seat at one of those readings, or you'd just like to read the play, write to me. I answer my own email. The script and the pitch are yours for the asking.

Garrett Anderson

Investment materials are provided on request and nothing on this page is an offer to sell securities.

Playwright garrett@garrettanderson.com
Telephone (212) 658-1839
Kindly reply

R.S.V.P.

Dinner is at four. The readings are sooner. Tell us where to save your seat.

Which table

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THE LAST SLICE

a play by Garrett Anderson

Script request

The full script, as a PDF, from Garrett himself.

Garrett reads every request and answers his own email.