The Abduction

The Abduction is a dark comedy set on a warm June evening at Camp Hero in Montauk, Long Island — the abandoned Cold War military base best known as the inspiration for Stranger Things and the subject of decades of UFO folklore. Francine, a middle school math teacher and secret believer, has dragged her best friend Ruth to the base to hunt for a flying saucer rumored to appear over the eastern tip of Long Island. Ruth, a skeptic who was promised dinner and bars, is counting the minutes until last call. As the night unfolds, Francine reveals she has quietly joined a UFO research group backed by Washington money, that the group is planning to disrupt the Presidential Address next Wednesday with analog UFO photos, and that there is a buried Nazi-era government lab directly beneath them. What begins as a comedy about two friends and a bad idea becomes a quiet escalation — through conspiracy theory, workplace gossip, a $10,000 reward, and the slow realization that something above them may not be friendly. The play is a two-hander for actors with strong comedic timing and chemistry. Dry, specific, grounded in Long Island, and built on the kind of odd-couple friendship that only decades of shared history produces.