In One Act

by Adrienne Kennedy

Book Overview

"Since her earliest plays. . . Adrienne Kennedy] has been creating frightful and seductive theatrical images of her memories and fantasies. Her black, female protagonists enact Kennedy's nightmares, then make them ours, enveloping the audience in their relentless anger, madness, and fear . . . time and place shift constantly, plot lines are parceled out in bits, and a contextual frame comes clear gradually, like a reflection is...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0816616922
• ISBN13: 9780816616923
• Release Date: September 1988
• Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Welcome to Kennedy's nightmare

"Adrienne Kennedy in One Act" collects eight plays by this remarkable American playwright: six original pieces and two adaptions of Greek drama. The original plays are as follows: "Funnyhouse of a Negro" (which won an Obie Award for the 1964-65 theater season), "The Owl Answers," "A Lesson in Dead Language," "A Rat's Mass," "Sun," and "A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White." The Greek adaptations are "Electra" and "Orestes."Kennedy's original work is surreal and nightmarish. Her most striking plays feature African-American female protagonists, and explore such topics as failed marriage, racial segregation, middle-class Black aspiration, sexual transgression, guilt, and the conflict between light- and dark-skinned African-Americans.Kennedy often uses bizarre props and stage directions, as well as weird and unsettling dialogue. Her plays often employ iconic figures from Western culture: European royalty, classic Hollywood stars, and characters from Christian tradition. Kennedy has a sharp satiric eye, and her characters are frequently suffering from intense pain. "A Lesson. . ." and "A Rat's Mass" feature grotesque half-human, half-animal figures. "A Movie Star. . ." has as its main character a Black female aspiring playwright, and incorporates references to other plays in this collection; this piece thus has a particularly reality-warping feel.Adrienne Kennedy's drama has a boldly experimental and psychological quality. Although her experiments don't always work, when they do the result is stunning.