Sight Unseen and Other Plays (Paperback)

by Donald Margulies (Author) "When I see one of Donald Margulies's plays, I always end up thinking about my cousin Abe..." (more)
Key Phrases: weeded area, shiva call, creative contributors, Little Earl, New York, Donald Margulies (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Margulies's plays explore individuals' needs to be part of a group, usually a family, a religion, or both. Sometimes these are bitingly funny, as in the parodical Loman Family Picnic, about a young man who escapes his unhappy family life by imagining a musical of Death of a Salesman. Sometimes the plays are surreal, as in the Twilight Zonish What's Wrong With This Picture? about a dead wife and mother who is resurrected by her family's intense need--and then must convince them to let her rest in peace. The best in this collection is the title play. An artist finds himself in a crisis of identity when a German TV interviewer starts probing him about the supposed "Jewish" elements in his work. This volume, which also includes Found a Peanut and The Model Apartment, covers the upward curve of Margulies's career from the journeyman stage through off-Broadway successes to his first Broadway play.

Product Description
An adept storyteller with a palpable affection for the traditions of the stage and a taste for surreal comedy, Margulies "manages to transform what might have been kitchen-sink drama into theatre that is unsettling, imaginative and quite hilarious."--(Howard Kissel, New York Daily News)

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group (June 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559361034
• ISBN-13: 978-1559361033
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #653,434 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Collection by one of America's best contemporary playwrights, December 14, 1999

By	J. Gutteridge (New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Donald Margulies is one of the best playwrights currently at work in the American theater. His view of, particularly, middle class family life is elevated above the ordinary by Margulies' ability to observe his characters' struggles with the sharpest of eyes, while making his audience see and sympathize with the different points of view. His plays exploring the life of the artist also resonate. Margulies' earlier plays play with surrealism and comedy, while in the more recent plays he has used his knack for shuffling time and place to illuminate what appear to be ordinary lives. The Model Apartment is a remarkable play that dares to explore the fallout of the Holocaust through a lens of comedy, with powerful results. I look forward to a next volume of collected works of this extraordinary playwright.

5.0 out of 5 stars Marguilas, May 9, 2009

By	The Flash (Interlochen, MI) - See all my reviews

The collection was in good shape and arrived within the expected shipping time. Met my expectations.