Theresa Rebeck: Complete Plays, 1989-1998 (Contemporary Playwrights) (Paperback)

by Theresa Rebeck (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
"The only people who write for the theatre these days," quips a character in Rebeck's The Family of Mann, "are people who can't get work in television." Whatever sardonic truth that observation may hold, it certainly does not apply to award-winning playwright and screenwriter Rebeck, whose collected plays are now the latest entry in the publisher's wonderful "Contemporary Playwrights" series. This anthology includes five full-length plays and seven previously unpublished one-acts. Referring to herself as a "comic realist," Rebeck explores contemporary American culture, often using relationships, television, and politics as landscapes against which volatile combinations of sex and power (as in the prophetic pre-Bill and Monica piece View of the Dome) are played out. That Rebeck should now find herself in the company of playwrights like Horton Foote, Romulus Linney, Christopher Durang, Eric Overmeyer, and Lanford Wilson, all of whom have been included in the "Contemporary Playwrights" series, is proof that her theatrical star is in the ascendant. For all contemporary theater collections.ABarry X. Miller, Austin P.L., TX
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Rebeck has yet to write that big play that will make her a national name. But she has enjoyed some success off-Broadway and in regional theater with Spike Heels and View of the Dome and has produced one flat-out comic masterpiece, The Family of Mann. This book of five full-length plays and six one-acts represents nine years of writing. The plays, if not all equally strong--some of the early ones take too long to get rolling--feature well-conceived characters and clear, forceful, well-written dialogue. The Family of Mann, an angry screed against the narrow, sexist, infantile world of TV writing, is particularly strong. Every major living playwright (Mamet, Kopit, Shanley, etc.) has tackled Hollywood's cloud-cuckooland, but no one else has portrayed its mixture of stupidity and crude power politics as well as Rebeck does. Ironically, Rebeck reveals in the introduction, she currently makes her living writing scripts for the likes of NYPD Blue. TV's gain is theater's loss; even the quickest perusal of her dramatic output bears that out. Jack Helbig

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Product Details

• Paperback: 391 pages
• Publisher: Smith & Kraus; 1 edition (December 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575251728
• ISBN-13: 978-1575251721
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #283,717 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent group of plays, August 30, 1999

By A Customer

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.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A terribly underrated playwright, February 13, 2000

By A Customer

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.

5 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Well-deservedly Unknown, August 8, 2001

By	Adam Schwartz (Bloomington, IN United States) - See all my reviews

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.