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A review by gregbutera
The Designated Mourner by Wallace Shawn
4.0
Why did this take me so long to read? It's only 100 pages! Well the first 20 or so were tough to get through and then you really need to read it straight through in one sitting. So, are you a rat or a dirt eater? Which would you prefer to be? Do you have wealth and privilege but feel guilty? When the revolution comes will you be heading to the guillotine?
I can't imagine being an actor trying to memorize these lengthy thick passages. In all of his plays, Wallace Shawn deals with some difficult issues, taking on privilege, selfishness, interpersonal relationships, and the characters wildly swing between compassion and violent outbursts. It is sometimes very jarring. I understand that he's trying to show how the inner monologue that we each hear inside our heads is often jarring, selfish, and horrible to the people external to us. But that's also what makes the play a challenge to those of us living our soft, safe little lives. Not wanting to think about those hard questions, or think about how things that benefit us may negatively impact others. I think he writes about important subjects, but the main characters in all of his plays that I have read so far are hard to like, and that makes what they have to say hard to get through sometimes.
This one is also a film with Mike Nichols and Miranda Richardson playing the two leads.
I think Shawn is an important playwright and I am glad I've stumbled upon his work.
I can't imagine being an actor trying to memorize these lengthy thick passages. In all of his plays, Wallace Shawn deals with some difficult issues, taking on privilege, selfishness, interpersonal relationships, and the characters wildly swing between compassion and violent outbursts. It is sometimes very jarring. I understand that he's trying to show how the inner monologue that we each hear inside our heads is often jarring, selfish, and horrible to the people external to us. But that's also what makes the play a challenge to those of us living our soft, safe little lives. Not wanting to think about those hard questions, or think about how things that benefit us may negatively impact others. I think he writes about important subjects, but the main characters in all of his plays that I have read so far are hard to like, and that makes what they have to say hard to get through sometimes.
This one is also a film with Mike Nichols and Miranda Richardson playing the two leads.
I think Shawn is an important playwright and I am glad I've stumbled upon his work.