THE LAST YANKEE With a new essay
About Theatre language
and
BROKEN GLASS
The Fireside Theatre -- hc
New York -- 1994 -- 180pp
ISBN: 1-56865-104-X
Two short plays with doctors and pschosomatic illnesses and an essay.
THE LAST YANKEE (2m, 3f)
BROKEN GLASS (3m, 3f, cellist)
#####
Two interesting plays that I was not particularly familiar with. The Last Yankee is a play which explores the illness of depression and how often we ignore this, particularly men if the woman is depressed. There is, of course, more going on here, but ultimately the men in the play don't seem to understand or appreciate their wives' conditions.
Similarly, Broken Glass is more of a mystery, following a woman who suddenly collapses and no longer has the use of her legs, despite the fact that doctors can find no physical reason for the affliction. A clue to the mystery is her obsession with photos of humiliated Jews in Germany (the play takes place circa 1939).
Both plays are quite well written and, being shorter (long one-acts), don't become the soporific, nearly didactic plays that I have sometimes felt Miller's play become.
It's too bad that both don't have more life, but I suspect that being one-acts, there is less desire for them.
The essay was interesting at the time of reading, but otherwise forgettable.
No comments:
Post a Comment