Emergency Exit: A Play in 2 Acts (Paperback)

by Jane House (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
Two down-and-outers, Angelo and Martino, share a crumbling and condemned apartment in Naples. Angelo is an uneducated former church sexton, while Martino had a career as a theater prompter. Theirs is a love-hate relationship as they continually wage psychological war on each other, with often hilarious results. Santanelli, one of Italy's foremost modern playwrights, has drawn on the tradition of the commedia dell'arte to bring us this comic masterpiece, somewhat reminiscent of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple. This skillful first English translation is as true as possible to the Italian original. Recommended for public and academic theater arts collections.DHoward Miller, Rosary H.S., St. Louis
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"...a meeting of two exacting theatrical traditions: the grand Neapolitan revival of the commedia dell'arte... and modern-day Europe's cutting-edge, existentialist theater of the grotesque."

-- La Repubblica

"Martino and Angelo are two misfits, two of society's outsiders... All they can do is exchange fantasies and wait for a doomsday that is closer than Godot's arrival... In terms of Italian dramaturgy, Emergency Exit would be as much of an influence as Pinter's The Caretaker was in Britain." -- The International Daily

"Santanelli's work is some of the finest I've seen in years. It is, indeed, extraordinary, intended for audiences who hunger for the rare and the beautiful."

-- Eugene Ionesco

... provides entertainment and enlightenment and, like any good play, it will affect your gut as well as your brain. -- --Adam Szymkowicz Collages & Bricolages, No. 14, 2001

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 119 pages
• Publisher: Xenos Books; 1st edition (July 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 187937840X
• ISBN-13: 978-1879378407
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 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: #4,881,912 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, August 11, 2000

By	Dan Angelo (Colton, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Emergency Exit by Manlio Santanelli is a rewarding read, both for it's metaphoric value as well as for its literary style.

I must confess that I am not fond of reading plays. While a work of prose allows your mind to spontaneously create its own images, a play does not. One must first create a mental image of a stage, then create the appropriate scenery, props, and the like. Then one must scrupulously follow what character is speaking, mentally attribute the corresponding voice and follow each character's entrances and exits so as not to have the wrong character on the stage at any given time. There is the whole business of delivery . . . how a written line is to be spoken; what emotion, how intense and so on.

Emergency Exit eliminates most of these problems. First, there are only two characters, Angelo and Martino. The setting is the interior of an abandoned dwelling in Naples. Santanelli is highly directive, providing copious directions for the characters - something that actors and directors may find confining, but removes much of the guess work for the reader. So, from the reader's stand point, it is direct, to the point and unambiguous.

But the real value is its content. Emergency Exit is a metaphor for life. Two characters, one of high birth and the other a commoner, represent the Everyman in each of us. They find themselves sharing quarters in a district of Naples which is largely deserted due to earthquake damage. The threat of another quake looms ever in the background. Angelo's and Martino's arguments and bickering vacillates from the trivial to the profound, but always has the texture of reality. Effusive with existential despair, it never wallows - you are constantly motivated to turn the next page.

5.0 out of 5 stars eNTER THE EMERGENCY EXIT, January 24, 2001

By A Customer

Thanks to Anthony Molino and Jane House's brilliant translation,Manlio Santanelli's play Emergency Exit has been made accessible to English speaking readers.Hailed in Italy as a masterpiece,Santanelli explores the physical and psychological condition of two Becket-like characters in a modern urban setting.Simultaneously witty,probing and disturbingthis translation demands to be read. Better still,it demands to be produced.