Customer Reviews

Theresa Rebeck: Complete Plays, Vol. 1: 1989-1998

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I have enjoyed the plays of Ms. Rebeck over the years and am glad to see them compiled in one book. I was fortunate enough to see "Spike Heels" in New York with Kevin Bacon and Tony Goldwyn. My favorite play is "View of the Dome" with its uncanny parallels to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Ms. Rebeck's plays are always insightful and thought-provoking. I hope one day to see Volume 2 of her plays.

As she points out in her introduction, Theresa Rebeck has, at various times in her distinguished career, been ghettoized as a feminist playwright, a playwright who "sold out" to television, and worse. I have to believe that, eventually, even the cretins who review American theater will recognize that the only ghetto Rebeck belongs in is the same one inhabited by Albee, Hellman, Williams, Wilson (August, not Lanford) and Shepard, i.e., Great Playwright.

After reading the reviews on ... about this book, I eagerly sought it out in my public library. I was disappointed to find that these plays are the same third-rate drivel that one sees so much of in contemporary playwriting. These "plays"--crude sketches, really--are bereft of poetry, story, or subtlety.

It's rather revealing that the prologue of this book is taken up with Ms. Rebeck's kvetching that no one recognizes her as a feminist playwright. I've never heard Marsha Norman or the late Lorraine Hansberry gnashing their teeth about lack of recognition. Could it be because they've taken their plays past the first draft stage and fashioned them into excellent works that in fact do receive recognition? Compare any page from 'night, Mother or A Raisin in the Sun to any page from this drek, and then tell me with a straight face that are well-written plays. I'm sorry to be so scathing, but it makes me very sad to see the art and craft of playwriting become so debased that the good cannot be distinguished from the dreadful.

Ms. Rebeck also tells us that she now writes for primetime television. Considering that the influence of television is partly responsible for the lowering of playwriting standards, that would seem perfect. Let's hope she stays there.