Tales Of The Lost Formicans

by Constance Congdon

Book Overview

This witty and passionate play explores the story of a man with Alzheimer's and at the same time turns into "a travel guide to Middle America conducted by aliens from outer space." The play has a wonderful comic sensibility, but this is a chillingly painful play addressing postmodern society's collective nervous breakdown. "If not the best new play of recent years, surely this is the most imaginative. Constance Congdon's brilliant Off-Broadway script...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 088145091X
• ISBN13: 9780881450910
• Release Date: September 1990
• Publisher: Broadway Play Publishing
• Length: 88 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

It gives me a nice warm tingly happy wholesome sensation.

A little bit of explication for your enjoyment: this play is not a sitcom (aka a situational comedy). It is not a story about a woman moving back home to her parents after her husband dumps her for an 18-year-old oboe player who he has impregnated. It is an extremely avant-garde piece of work that cannot be fully described or understood without being read. "Tales of the Lost Formicans" examines the lives of several seemingly white trash people, only this is done by anthropological aliens who strive to understand the culture of Middle America. About a year ago I had the privlege of acting out the part of Eric in Oregon State University's Theatre. Eric is a 15-year-old delinquent (At the time I was 14 years of age) who has the privlege of being able to use the unholy F-word Twenty-One (21) times per performance! We performed six times in front of a 300 person audience! That's 21 x 6 x 300 = 37800 times that people paid to hear me blasphemize! If you are interested in putting on this play, I would highly recommend it. Be advised though that it is extremely difficult to produce. However, this difficulty partially comes from the fact that there is so much room that was fortunately left by Congdon for taking creative liberties with the script. It is not so much difficult as it is chalenging (although it was still pretty gosh-darned hard-I had 25 entrances, which mostly consisted of dragging on some piece of furniture and then dragging off some sort of appliance) Be warned though that this play should appeal to only a very select audience, being one that can appreciate ambiguity and is not turned off to drugs, masochism, profuse yelling and swearing, and offbeat humor in the name of art. This play will not appeal to those who cannot appreciate what modern artistic literature has to offer. Nor will it be popular with most any pretentious small town newspaper whose ideal play is one which the whole family (father, mother, 6 children ages 2-14, American-made minivan) can wholesomely enjoy. Thank you, Constance Congdon, for writing this wonderful play. I loved being a part of it.