Burn This: A Play [Paperback]

Lanford Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1988

Commissioned by the Circle Repertory Company, Burn This first appeared at the Mark Taper Forum in Los angeles in 1987 to near-universal praise. Set in the bohemian art world of downtown New York, this vivid and challenging drama explores the spiritual and emotional isolation of Anna and Pale, two outcasts who meet in the wake of the accidental death by drowning of a mutual friend. Their determined struggle toward emotional honesty and liberation--by no means guaranteed at the play's ambiguous end--exemplifies the strength, humor, and complexity of all of Lanford Wilson's work and confirms his standing as one of America's greatest living playwrights.

Lanford Wilson was born in Lebanon, Missouri, in 1938 and attended the University of Chicago. A founding member of the Circle Repertory Company in New York, he has seen many of his plays produced in theaters all over the United States and abroad. He is the recipient of many awards, including a Drama Desk Vernon Rice Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and two Obies.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The incendiary image of the title refers to letters too painful to contemplate for long. Burn This is about the pain of loss, the pain of love, and the cost in pain to be a great artist. It is both larger in implication and more personal than previous plays by Wilson. Yet it is also typical, in that it is about a tightly knit family-like group into which an outsider comes. The center of the play is Anna, a dancer, whose partner has died accidently, who must grieve and get on with her art. The catalyst character is the dead man's brother, Pale, a wild man in his passionate grief, and the center of cyclonic emotions for Anna and her friends. Anna creates an important ballet out of her agony, and Pale brings her to love. Searing. Thomas E. Luddy, Salem State Coll., Mass.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"From his earliest plays to his last, Burn This, Lanford Wilson has been firmly committed to the free expression of the individual spirit, no matter how nonconformist or even prodigal that spirit may seem to be...In the sense that it deals with lonely and displaced characters, Burn This is in the Wilson tradition. Where it breaks dramatic ground for the author is in its passion...Mr. Wilson exposes deep uncauterized emotional wounds--and offers no salve."--Mel Gussow, The New York Times

"The play [Burn This] has a voracious vitality and an almost manic determination to drive right into the highest voltage that life can register."--Jack Kroll, Newsweek

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Product Details

• Paperback: 99 pages
• Publisher: Hill and Wang (February 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374521581
• ISBN-13: 978-0374521585
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,326,526 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just right, May 19, 2000

By 

"crazycowae" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Burn This: A Play (Paperback)

This play is a meaningful, and yet almost simple, masterpiece. The story unfolds with the death of a gay man, which ultimately brings an unlikely match closer together. Wilson's use of homosexual issues is the perfect sprinkling: it is not the main focus of the play, but gives it just the extra touch. This is how homosexuality should be written about in the theatre (or any form of entertainment). It isn't over-played or under-played, but just right.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't burn it, its hot already, September 24, 2001

By 

"kda715" (Springfield, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Burn This: A Play (Paperback)

Every play Lanford Wilson writes is intelligent as well as passionate and dramatic. It is almost beyond belief how hard it is to combine all of these qualities in the same play. In "Burn This", Wilson is in top form. Pale (the male lead) is such a clearly written and deeply felt part that an actor does not have to fill in any gaps; if an actor can read well, he is assured of at least an above average performance. The dialogue is spicy, funny, sad, bitter and more. In movie terms, it is a Nicholas Cage part (although Malkovich originated it).

Pale's love interest and foil (the Joan Allen part) is not secondary to Pale because she has the power to heal him. A magnificent love story.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Dancer Meets The Mess, January 24, 2005

By 

Aco - See all my reviews

This review is from: Burn This: A Play (Paperback)

What I like about Burn This is it's mystery. There were many instances when I wasn't clear what people were talking about or why they were saying it. That ambiguity fuels the whirlwind nature of what ends up being a kind of hard luck love story.

Anna is a dancer, and the focal point of the story. She is surrounded by three men, Burton, a born-wealthy and successful writer, who may or may not be her boyfriend, Larry, her gay roommate and confidant, and Pale, the volatile brother of Robbie, whose death inspires the action.

As Anna struggles with the death of her best friend and dancing partner, all three men, who were also connected to Robbie must deal too with where they are in life, and why.

Eventually though, it comes to Anna and Pale....

And there the heart of Burn This lies. In the mystery of attraction.

Good play. Good characters. It goes into the ether areas, and made me wonder about passion, life's work, the force of personality, and tactics to winning and overwhelming hearts.