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American Plays
American plays by playwright: E
TheatreBooks stocks plays in English from around the world and, of course, all
plays published in Canada. We stock and sell plays from Samuel French Ltd., Dramatists Play Service and Dramatic Publishing Co., and the leading play publishers
in Great Britain. We carry books on all aspects of theatre production, as well
as opera and dance.
If you don't find the title or playwright you are looking for, please stop by the
store and ask, or contact us at action@theatrebooks.com,
by phone at 416.922.7175, toll-free at 1.800.361.3414 or by fax at 416.922.0739.
Plays
are also listed by playwright, by last name.
A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M /
N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W /
X / Y / Z
If you are unsure of the author's name, please to to our search
engine and enter the title of the work you are interested in.
 Continental
Divide: Daughters of the Revolution
David Edgar
Moving on to higher things from his job in a community college, former
sixties activist Michael Bern finds that his partner has thrown a
surprise fifty-fifth party in his honour, where his friends present
him with
his FBI file. In the file, Michael finds proof that one of an eight-strong
group of activists was an FBI informer. In his search for the informer,
Michael discovers what happened to his former friends, but more profoundly,
what has happened to himself. M-7, F-8. Softcover, 100 pp. $9.99.
 Wit
Margaret Edson
In this extraordinary play Margaret Edson has created a work that is as intelligently
challenging as it is emotionally immediate. A renowned professor of English who has
spent years teaching the Holy Sonnets of the metaphysical poet John Donne has been
diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. Her approach to her illness in not unlike
her approach to the study of Donne: aggressively probing and intensely rational.
During the course of her illness the academic comes to reassess her life and her
work with a profundity and humor that are transformative both for her and the audience.
$18.95.
 Such a Beautiful Voice is Sayeda's and Karima's City
Yussef El Guindi
In Such a Beautiful Voice is Sayeda's, Islam hangs in the very air you breathe; spirits, or jimns, may lurk near; flattering dresses and lipstick are evidence of infidelity; and a woman singing can bring dishonor and ruin to herself and her family. (3M, 6W, doubling possible) Karima's City. Karima's beloved city is changing around her. The seeds-and-nuts vendor, the fruit seller and the butcher who used to greet her every morning no longer do. Everywhere concrete monstrosities are rising, and the trees are vanishing. These changes are making Karima physically ill, and she can no longer keep silent. But whenever she speaks her mind, all manner of suffering befalls her. In a society that judges iconoclasts shameful, dangerous and a menace, it slowly becomes apparent that Karima's devastating fate has already been written. (6 to 7 actors can play the 25 roles). Softcover, 53 pp. $10.99.
 Back of the Throat
Yussef El Guindi
Back of the Throat is the tale of an apparently friendly visit by two government officials, which soon desolves into a full-blown, no-holds-barred probe. Khaled, an Arab-American writer and the focus of their inquiry, finds himself, to his astonishment, suddenly accused of possible ties to terrorists. As the interrogation proceeds, the officials reveal their evidence, but is it really evidence? Or have innocent events been distorted through the lens of paranoid suspicion? As the situation turns increasingly surreal, and the menace to Khaled increasingly real, the question of what it means to be an American takes on a very personal and charged significance. Softcover, 53 pp. $10.99.
 Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins
Margaret Engel & Allison Engel
The story of the unsinkable Molly Ivins, the famously brassy newspaper columnist and best-selling author. A true Texas original, Ivins was a sharp-tongued with who skewered the political establishment and the "good ol' boys" with her unforgettable humor and wisdom. Written by twin sisters, themselves longtime journalists, the play celebrates Ivins' courage and tenacity -- even when a complacent America wasn't listening. 1f. Softcover, 36 pp. $11.99.
 Oh, the Humanity and other good intentions
Will Eno
The five short plays make up Oh, the Humanity and other good intentions move toward feeling by way of thought, and toward gratitude by way of loss. These largely sane plays feature people alone or in pairs, or both, attempting to present themselves in the best light, or ultimately, desperately, in any light. Softcovre, 63 pp. $20.95.
 The Flu Season and other plays
Will Eno
From the author of the hit Thom Payne (based on nothing) comes another collection of cuttingly funny and rather heartfelt plays. Eno's subversive and inventive edge, combined with his gift for the alchemy of grim and humorous creates a refreshingly beautiful triad of plays for the modern reader. With this collection we are introduced to: Flu Season, Tragedy: A tragedy, and Intermission. Softcover, 109 pp. $16.95.
 Thom Pain (based on nothing)
Will Eno
He's just like you, except worse. He is trying to save his life, to save your
life -- in that order. In his quest for salvation, he'll stop at nothing, be
distracted by nothing, except maybe a piece of lint, or the woman in the second
row. M-1. Softcover, 32 pp. $9.99.
 The Flu Season
Will Eno
Set in a hospital and in a theatre, The Flu Season is a love
story -- a reluctant one, a love story in spite of itself. M-4, F-2. Softcover,
45 pp. $9.99.
 The Treatment
Eve Ensler
This two-character drama delves into the layers of power, fear and intimacy that exist between a traumatized soldier (and former military interrogator) and the female psychologist colonel who is assigned to give him routine treatment. The Treatment is a blunt exploration of torture, accountability and a soldier's "duty" to commit atrocities in the name of democracy. Softcover, 33 pp. $10.99.
 The Good Body
Eve Ensler
This collection of diverse monologues is a wake-up call for us to love the bodies
we inhabit. Botox, Bulimia, Breast Implants: Eve Ensler, author of the international
sensation The Vagina Monologues, is back, this time to rock
our view of what it means to have a "good body". Softcover, 95 pp.
$27.95.
 Necessary Targets
Eve Ensler
From the author of The Vagina Monologues comes a play about two American women from two very different backgrounds who go
to Bosnia to help women confront their memories of war. " A brave, powerful,
and crucial testimony against violence aimed at women as an act of war." Meryl
Streep SC $19.95.
 The Vagina Monologues: The V-Day Edition
Eve Ensler
with a foreward by Gloria Steinem
The part that dare not speak its name now has the stage to herself... The Vagina
Monologues is a celebration of female sexuality in all its complexity and mystery.
It has been performed in cities all across America (and, at last, Toronto) and at
hundreds of college campuses, and has inspired a grass-roots movement -- V-Day --
to stop violence against women. Witty and irreverent, compassionate and wise, Eve
Ensler's Obie Award-winning masterpiece gives voice to real women's deepest fantasies
and fears, guaranteeing that no one who reads it will ever look at a woman's body,
or think of sex, in quite the same way again. $19.95.
Imaginary Friends
Nora Ephron
Softcover, 114 pp. $18.00.
 The Momologues
Lisa Rafferty, Stefanie Cloutier & Sheila Eppolito
This original comedy about motherhood rips away the gauzy mask of parenthood to reveal what all mothers know but don't always talk about: that it's overwhelming and exhausting, but also very, very funny. 4f. Softcover, 46 pp. $11.99.
 Trojan Barbie
Christine Evans
Part contemporary drama, part homage to Euripedes' Trojan Women, this play recasts the legendary fall of the city of Troy against the vivid reality of modern warfare. Poetic, compassionate, and tinged with great warmth and humour, Trojan Bride is an epic war story with a most unlikely heroine, who always looks on the bright side even as past and present collide about her. 4m, 7f. Softcover, 68 pp. $11.99.
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