Of All the Nerve: Deb Margolin Solo (Critical Performances) [Hardcover]

Deb Margolin (Author), Lynda Hart (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0304703184 | ISBN-13: 978-0304703180 | Publication Date: March 1999

The "Critical Performance" series pairs a performance artist or playwright with a critical theorist in a dialogue aimed to elucidate both disciplines. This volume focuses on Deb Margolin, one of the three founding members of the American performance troupe Split Britches.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Performance art is an ephemeral art form. The "play" can differ greatly from performance to performance, depending upon the interpretation of the moment by the artist. Nevertheless, Margolin, a founding member of the performance group Split Britches, has described herself as more of a playwright who chose to perform her own work than as a performance artist. This collection of seven works, along with commentary, provides a window into her creativity. The intense visual nature of this type of theater, which includes interaction with the audience, requires that the written form communicates the intent of the playwright even more clearly than a typical play. Some of Margolin's work contains sufficient stage direction and detail for the reader to grasp the work, and some does not. For theater collections only.AJ. Sara Paulk, Coastal Plain Regional Lib., Tifton, Ambrose, GA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

New York^-based performance artist Margolin isn't nearly as well known as such more outrageous, taboo-flouting peers as, oh, Karen Finley. That is a shame because Margolin creates intelligent, incisive, richly textured pieces that put the often subliterate work of higher-profile artists to shame. She began her career in the early '80s, writing material for the feminist troupe Split Britches, making a name for angry but intensely funny deconstructions of the world. By the early '90s, she was on her own, with status in the downtown scene, regularly receiving kudos in the Village Voice and the rest of the New York press. Of All the Nerve includes the scripts of seven solo shows. The title piece, a wonderful, whimsical meditation on the nature of performance and a performer's life in New York, combines with the others to reveal Margolin's full range. The scripts are accompanied by essays and commentaries by Lynda Hart that--annoying, dense, impenetrable, self-indulgent--make quite a contrast to Margolin's accessible, carefully crafted writing. Jack Helbig

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 202 pages
• Publisher: Cassell (March 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0304703184
• ISBN-13: 978-0304703180
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,720,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking... literally. A real find for performers!!!!!!!, August 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Of All the Nerve: Deb Margolin Solo (Critical Performances) (Hardcover)

Where has Deb Margolin been all my life? These pieces are so beautifully written and so performative... it's like walking through the world with someone who keeps tugging at your sleeve shouting, "Did you see that?" Deb Margolin's work helps us all see more clearly. Anyone who is a performer will rejoice at finding this work. This book is for anyone who loves language, who finds life worth living in its most absurd details, and who wants to know that there is really is amazing theatre being performed... bless Lynda Hart for having the vision to get this work published.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Margolin's wordplay a combination of beauty and fashion, June 2, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Of All the Nerve: Deb Margolin Solo (Critical Performances) (Hardcover)

NYC performance artist and wordsmith Margolin creates intriguing verbal landscapes. The writer understands how in the space of time we are bound by the history of truth. Eager to read this book when published.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Erotic, thought-provoking and frank, May 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Of All the Nerve: Deb Margolin Solo (Critical Performances) (Hardcover)

I have not read this book yet. I have, however, read three of Deb Margolin's short works at Salon magazine's site and they make me want to read much more. I find her work to be at once erotic poetry and searing social comentary. I look foward to reading more by this author.