Selected Plays

A selection of five plays by twentieth-century author and actress Alice Childress, including "Florence," "Gold through the Trees," "Trouble in Mind," "Wedding Band : A Love/Hate Story in Black and White," and "Wine in the Wilderness."

Bringing the iconic plays of Stan Lai to an English-language readership

First ever collection of plays by award-winning Nigerian-American playwright Sefi Atta. “This is contemporary family drama at its best: jam-packed with complex characters of largely middle class backgrounds; terse, witty dialogues that demonstrate Atta’s skills at portraying genders and generations with widely differing aspirations; sibling rivalries, conjugal dynamics and meddling extended families; best friends and bad neighbors; and a whole plethora of religious practices and ethical mores which affect business ventures, professional conduct, and personal relations. This and much more you will find in Atta’s Selected Plays—a drama collection which offers thought-provoking entertainment for theatre lovers.” —Christine Matzke, University of Bayreuth

Contents: Philadelphia, Here I Come; The Freedom of the City; Living Quarters; Aristocrats; Faith Healer; Translations Brian Friel was born in County Tyrone in 1929 and worked as a teacher before turning to full-time writing in 1960. His first stage success was in 1964 with Philadelphia, Here I Come, which established his claim as heir to such distinguished predecessors as Yeats, Synge, O'Casey, and Behan. In 1979 he and actor Stephen Rea formed the Field Day Theatre Company, whose first theatrical production was Friel's Translations in 1980. Also included in this selection are The Freedom of the City, set in Londonderry in 1970; Living Quarters, which Desmond MacAvok in the Evening Presscalled "one of the most fascinating and, in the end, truly moving evenings. . .in Irish Theatre"; Faith Healer, a metaphoric depiction of the artist and his gift' and Aristocrats, "as fine and as stimulating and as warm a piece of writing as had appeared on the Irish stage for many years," according to David Nowland, the Irish Times. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hailed as a creative genius (TLS) and a singular American visionary (New York Times), James Purdy may be best known for his remarkable novels, but he is also an astonishing playwright who has written nine full-length and twenty short plays. Purdy is one of the few contemporary American writers capable of writing tragedy-Tennessee Williams called him a uniquely gifted man of the theater. This collection presents four riveting and beautifully crafted works: Brice, The Paradise Circus, Where Quentin Goes, and Ruthanna Elder. Each explores a range of emotional and familial tangles, as fathers betray their sons and squander their inheritances, siblings compete for parental affection, and husbands and wives try to salvage meaning from their broken marriages. The plays are written in Purdy's authentic idiom, which Paul Bowles called the closest [we have] to a classical American colloquial.

Wilson's approach can be seen as a communal romanticism, dealing with ordinary people, language, and problems, giving the priority to the feeling and human dignity over logic, power and money, putting freedom and equity as a pivotal concern, almost presenting women and children as victims, and highlighting the importance of heritage, identity, and culture. As his self-revision message, all those three plays demonstrate scenes of black self-review, showing the blacks' part of responsibility in the situation they live in. It is a project of self-rehabilitation for the blacks. Since American society is a multicultural spectrum, there is not any certain legibly ascribed American identity. That is why Wilson does not submit to the claims of the dominant cultural trend by some white critics like Brustein. Wilson confidently presents the blacks' identity typified with self-fulfilment and contribution to the American culture, as his alternative contributory image of man against the white dominant models, or the violent black ones.

"James Purdy's Selected plays will break your damaged little heart."--John Winter."James Purdy's plays have much of the exciting existentiality that infuses his novels and seem content to take drama to interesting places it does not always want to go." -- Edward Albee."James Purdy is an authentic American genius." --Gore Vidal.

Dr Butler's edition is full and informative in its annotations and survey of criticisms to date, and cautiously respectful of Jonsonian punctuation.