Red Light Winter: A Play [Paperback]

Adam Rapp (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 27, 2005

It's totally familiar but dreamlike at the same time," observes one American of Amsterdam's notorious Red Light District in the stunning new work from Adam Rapp. Escaping their lives in Manhattan, former college buddies Matt and Davis take off to the Netherlands and find themselves thrown into a bizarre love triangle with a beautiful young prostitute named Christina. But the romance they find in Europe is eventually overshadowed by the truth they discover at home. Written with an unflinching poetic beauty, Red Light Winter is a play of sexual intrigue that explores the myriad and misguided ways we seek to fill the empty spaces inside us.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Riveting . . . A clever portrait of sexual obsession that never quite shows its hand...With one foot in the buddy comedy of Sideways and another in the macho diabolism of Neil LaBute...for sure, this will be Rapp's deserved breakthrough play . . ." --Chris Jones, Variety

"Spellbinding and haunting." --Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times

"An arresting study in melancholic triangulation and obsessions dashed . . . Shrewd about the way certain male friendships exist on the knife edge of disaster." --Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

About the Author

Adam Rapp is the author of numerous plays, most notably Nocturne (Faber, 2002), as well as six novels for young adults. His first feature film, Winter Passing, premiered at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival. He lives in New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 97 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber; 1st edition (December 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865479542
• ISBN-13: 978-0865479548
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,945 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gritty, Ugly, Controversial, June 7, 2009

By 

Corwin "Corwin" - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Red Light Winter: A Play (Paperback)

I really loved this script, but anyone else I have lent it to hated it. :)

It's a pretty brutal, sick look at humanity. It has the same sort of ugly undertones as plays like "Closer" or "The Shape of Things." It has some very graphic sex scenes and good monologue material for an early-20s male actor.

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow..., December 28, 2010

By 

gilmorefanforever "Sophie" (Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Red Light Winter: A Play (Paperback)

I picked up Adam Rapp's plays mostly due to his connection with one of my favorite actors, his brother Anthony. Red Light Winter was the first play of his I read, and it absolutely stunned me. The story has stuck with me for several days and I recommend it highly.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Adam Rapp is not the next... anything, really., July 9, 2010

By 

Greg (SEATTLE, WA, US) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Red Light Winter: A Play (Paperback)

Typical grunge and shock value playwriting, substituting nudity, sex and drugs for storytelling or character development. Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against sex and drugs on stage- if anything we need more of it. But that doesn't change this from being and underdeveloped narative that starts nowhere, goes nowhere, and seems to be written more as an excersise in stream of consciousness. Vague notions of "love" are tossed about, people behave in ways no one would ever behave in order to pad the length and create a sense of manufactured depth. "Important things must be happening, look how strange everyone is behaving!" Ugh.

Still, it could be excellent fodder for students, some decent scene work to be pulled from it, maybe a monologue or two. All in all, I don't see any real reason to put this onstage unless you're looking for an excuse to be naked on stage. For that try Alan Bowne, Sam Shepard or John Patrick Shanley; vastly superior authors with vastly superior plays.