Although best known for his novels (the most famous of which include No Country for Old Men and The Road), Cormac McCarthy has written a number of plays and screenplays. Among the pantheon of McCarthy's work is his 2006 play The Sunset Limited, which tells the story of a man (simply called “Black”) who is one day saved from suicide by a man simply called “White.” Realizing that he was still in profound despair, Black invites White over to his apartment and the two begin to have a conversation on life, death, God, the afterlife, education, and even economics. It is in the vein of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot and touches on many of the same themes.
Despite not being very widely performed, The Sunset Limited received very positive reviews upon its release. The New York Times liked the play, but expressed their concern that it wasn’t a play. In fact, they argued, it should have just been a novel. They also cited McCarthy's brilliant prose as a strongpoint of the play and called it "a poem in celebration of death."
The Sunset Limited was adapted into a film of the same name in 2011. Directed by Tommy Lee Jones and starring Jones and Samuel L. Jackson, the film received almost universally positive reviews when it was aired on HBO.
