Customer Reviews

La Bete and Wrong Mountain: Two Plays by David Hirson

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It is well nigh impossible to think of a playwright in the past twenty years who has sent greater shockwaves through the American theater than David Hirson. La Bete and Wrong Mountain were unlike anything Broadway had ever seen. And, for one brief shining moment, each made Broadway seem important again.

Part of what made these plays so exciting in the theater was the way in which they polarized audiences. I know people who were variously outraged, scandalized or confounded by them. ...
For my money, La Bete and Wrong Mountain were not only wonderfully entertaining, thought-provoking plays. They were the kind of audacious, category-defying miracles of theater that come along once, maybe twice, in a generation. And they were made doubly miraculous by their appearance on Broadway, a showbiz mecca that long ago ceased to be cutting-edge! (That they managed to survive even briefly in such an unhospitable environment is a miracle in itself!)

Normally, reading plays is not the greatest of pleasures. Having just finished this book, I can say unreservedly that La Bete and Wrong Mountain read like fantastic novels! They are both, after all, plays of language, and it is thrilling to luxuriate in Mr. Hirson's wordplay at one's own pace. There is also a remarkable preface by the author.

With this book, many people will have the opportunity to discover two gloriously unique works which are well on their way to assuming landmark status in the American theater. I envy them that discovery!

Anyone who was privileged enough - as I was - to see the original productions of David Hirson's (now legendary) La Bete and Wrong Mountain will doubtlessly discover that these two one-of-a-kind pieces, united at last in this handsome edition by Grove/ Atlantic, are as exultantly odd and subversive on the page as they were on the Broadway stage. Uproarious, intellectually challenging, and ablaze with white-knuckle passion, these plays remind one, upon reading them, why they provoked such hysterical divisiveness among the New York theatre establishment, leading more than one commentator to compare Hirson's volatile experience to that of the early Beckett, Orton and Pinter.
The comparison is not untoward. In their radical sensibilty, these two fiercely original works clearly occupy a category unto themselves, and are the rare examples of dramatic literature that not only contribute to theatrical form but subtly - and entertainingly! - redefine it. They also happen to be two of the funniest plays ever written.
For their dangerous unconventionality, linguistic inventiveness, existential curiosity, and utterly unique sense of humor, the plays in this volume stand head-and-shoulders above anything else out there. What a joy that they are in print at last!

When I read the two wildly divided opinions to Mr. Hirson's plays on this site, I was reminded of the critical response to Wrong Mountain. Some hailed it as magnificent, others dismissed it as dross. Which is exactly the kind of reaction that trailblazing works of art have always elicited: extremes of delight and revulsion.
I thought Wrong Mountain was a very great play. (I did not see La Bete.) That it managed only a short run on tourist-trap Broadway says more about Broadway, ultimately, than about the play. (Waiting for Godot, after all, was a failure on the Great White Way; Cats was a huge success!)
I am looking forward to reading La Bete to see if it maintains the same dizzyingly high standard as Wrong Mountain. Whether it does or not, Wrong Mountain is, in my opinion, an indispensable work of dramatic literature. And, like all major works, it is bound to remain extremely controversial. For Wrong Mountain alone, I give this book the highest rating.

all excellent service just ask for a rating, one step and out. yu are asking for too much tiime and effort.

Count me in the group that does not "get" the work of David Hirson.

Its been years since I've seriously considered either of these plays they aren't worth the effort.

I had heard about La Bete and its short run on Broadway and in the wake of the Wrong Mountain's approach I decided to read it because I had heard it was a much misunderstood gem with a marvelous 15 page speech. The play didn't strike me as much of anything other than someone showing off that he was, in theory, much more clever than his audience.

When Wrong Mountain opened on Broadway I went to see it because I had heard it was a great play. I found it painfully obvious and the cause of of one of the most painful nights at the theater. Some ten years on its still the source of much laughter since its become the punchline of several jokes among friend and family (one of which is a gage to how fast we're leaving a performance). Figuring that I had missed something I secured a copy of the script and found it didn't read any better than it was performed. Its not a particularly clever piece that made its points clear from the get go and not very original (then again the tape worm was kind of original).

Personally I don't think the plays are very good. For my money I'd take a pass.

I had planned to be kind and forgo a review of this book, but after reading the first review, I couldn't let such laughably inane comments stand. The reviewer was 'priviledged' to see 'Wrong Mountain?' The play that was booted off Broadway after about a month, and was rightly savaged by the critics as a wordy, pretentious and ultimately bloated work? Please. The story was barely entertaining (only the presence of excellent actors allowed to be minimally watchable) and the writing was bland, unoriginal and superfluous. The play 'rededined' the form? Redefined bad writing, perhaps, but nothing more.

Move on to truly original works. Move past this writer who, in my opinion, drives people away from the theater with talky, self-absorbed trivialities.