Bug (Paperback)

by Tracy Letts (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This dark comedy takes place in a seedy motel room outside Oklahoma City, where Agnes, a drug-addled cocktail waitress, is hiding from her ex-con ex-husband. Her lesbian biker friend R.C. introduces her to Peter, a handsome drifter who might be an AWOL Gulf War veteran. They soon begin a relationship that takes place almost entirely within the increasingly claustrophobic confines of her motel room. Peter begins to rant about the war in Iraq, UFOs, the Oklahoma City bombings, cult suicides, and then secret government experiments on soldiers, of which he believes he is a victim. His delusions infect Agnes and the tension mounts as mysterious strangers appear at their door, past events haunt them at every turn, and they are attacked by real bugs. Tracy Letts's tale of love, paranoia, and government conspiracy is a thought-provoking psycho-thriller that mixes terror and laughter at a fever pitch. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author
An ensemble member at the Steppenwolf Theater, Tracy Letts is an actor, director, and playwright who has appeared in several motion pictures and television shows in addition to his stage credits. His first play Killer Joe was a blockbuster hit on London's West End in 1993 and won the Fringe First Award from the Edinburgh Theater Festival. The Barrow Street Theater production of Bug was the winner of the 2004 Lortel Award for Outstanding Play. Also, Letts's screenplay of Bug will soon be filmed, starring Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon, and directed by William Friedkin. His most recent play Man From Nebraska was named one of Time magazine's ten best theater events of 2003 and was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Letts is the recipient of the 2005 21st Century Award from the Chicago Public Library Foundation. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 57 pages
• Publisher: Dramatist's Play Service (June 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822220164
• ISBN-13: 978-0822220169
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #610,243 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars (3.5) "They try to control you... they can drive you crazy too.", July 3, 2007

By	Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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

Perhaps one must have an appreciation for the macabre, a psychotic sense of humor and vivid imagination to enjoy Lett's play of increasing paranoia, rampant drug use (crack and cocaine), loneliness and the bizarre in general. Mixed together in a play that begins as a drama in Oklahoma with eccentric characters and ends with the noise of a hovering helicopter, the CIA and a psychiatrist come to collect an errant Army "experiment" and the conclusion actually makes sense.

Agnes is a forty-four-year-old, lonely freebaser who lives in a motel, her drug-using friends stopping by for a pipe or a line before going out to party. On one particular night, an unassuming young man, Peter Evans, remains behind at the motel with Agnes, sleeping on her floor. Gradually becoming more at home, Agnes allows her temporary guest to stay, afraid to be alone and harassed by phone calls from an ex-husband recently released from prison. After only one night of shared intimacy, Peter retreats a bit, slowly seducing Agnes into a sick codependency that involves a search for the bugs that are eating him alive.

Before long, Agnes is a willing partner, Peter spinning out a fantastic yarn of government experiments run amok and his true identity. Frequently hitting the pipe, the two spiral into an advanced paranoia that has no basis in logic, a twisted world view that ends in self-mutilation, murder and an inferno. The pace of this dark drama builds with the onset of Peter's bugs, each new character implicated in a vast plot to recover the object of the Army's experiment. The ending is fitting, considering the options. In an American Psycho-Quentin Tarantino kind of fugue, Letts samples the dark side and the ramifications of obsession, but it is hardly a pleasant journey.

While powerful, this play is definitely for a niche audience, the building emotional crescendo for auteurs only. The play has been made into a film starring Ashley Judd; I can't wait to avoid it. Luan Gaines/2007.

1 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting yet thought provoking, March 16, 2006

By	T. G. Harpster "STAGE MANAGER" (LAS VEGAS) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

BUG: This play is so interesting that CCSN is planning to prouduce it un about a year,I enjoyed reading the script; its going to be a challenge for the technical aspects of the play,
Teri