The Stonemason: A Play in Five Acts (1994) is one of Cormac McCarthy’s rare forays into drama, a lyrical yet gritty exploration of family, labor, and legacy set in 1970s Louisville, Kentucky. The play centers on Ben Telfair, a young Black stonemason working alongside his grandfather Papaw, a 91-year-old master craftsman whose hands-on wisdom embodies an almost sacred connection to tradition. Through their intergenerational dialogue—punctuated by McCarthy’s signature biblical cadence—the play contrasts the precision of stonework with the crumbling foundations of the Telfair family, as Ben’s father’s Vietnam trauma and his brother’s self-destruction collide with racial tensions and modernity’s rush.
McCarthy’s stage directions are uncharacteristically elaborate, evoking the “muscle and bone” of masonry as metaphor for moral endurance. Though less known than his novels, the play shares themes with The Road (2006)—what endures when the world seems bent on erasure.
For similar works, try The Sunset Limited (2006), McCarthy’s other existential two-hander, or August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson (1987) for another generational clash rooted in Black craftsmanship.
