Customer Reviews

Reckless and Blue Window: Two Plays

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These are two of the best contemporary American plays being performed today. BLUE WINDOW, reminiscent of Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway", explores the possibility of sharing thought, words, and perception, through the device of a party attended by several disparate people. RECKLESS is a wildly funny and disturbing trek across America with Rachel, an Everywoman whose optimism is betrayed at every turn. Both can be seen as movies.

It's interesting that the only two Craig Lucas plays I've read happen to be published together here. Both were surprising to me, particularly Reckless, which tied itself up in an emotionally and symbolically moving way. Blue Window is a very lyrical play. The juggling that Lucas did to write it is impressive in reading it, and the performance of the piece-where actors must time the simulateous speeches and cues from each other-would be very engaging and swift, were it done as it must be.

I liked Reckless better though. I think it's quirkier, funnier and uses images and styles of expression in a more theatrically thrilling way.

Blue Window had a Big Chill feel-"the party" being the device of a gathering. These characters are not old friends though. It is a gathering of contemporaries and an ensuing discovery that each remains an individual no matter what company they keep. There is within it an infinite philisophy and spiritual depth as each character urges toward transcendence. Reading Blue Window is very much different than seeing it would be. Upon a stage the seeming jumble of activity and speech clarifies itself as actors embody each character. As a read there is alot of juggling which morphed much of the personality traits into a kind of collective character essence.

I recommend them both, and must praise Lucas for two plays that offer what I know would be terrific theatre experiences, as they offer terrific reading.