The Designated Mourner

"The play nicely combines Pinterian menace with caustic political commentary." Time"Acerbic, elusive, poetic and chilling, the writing is demanding in a rarefied manner. Its implications are both affecting and disturbing." Los Angeles Times"In his exquisitely written dramatic lament for the decline of high culture. . . . [Shawn] offers a definition of the self that should rattle the defenses of intellectual snobs everywhere." The New York TimesWriter and performer Wallace Shawnrs"s landmark 1996 play features three characters-a respected poet, his daughter, and her English-professor husband-suspected of subversion in a world where culture has come under the control of the ruling oligarchy. Told through three interwoven monologues, the Orwellian political story is recounted alongside the visceral dissolution of a marriage. The play debuted at the Royal National Theatre in London, in a production directed by David Hare, who also directed the film version, starring Mike Nichols and Miranda Richardson. The playrs"s subsequent New York premiere was staged in a long-abandoned menrs"s club in lower Manhattan, directed by Shawnrs"s longtime collaborator Andreacute; Gregory.Wallace Shawn is the author of Our Late Night (OBIE Award for Best Play), Marie and Bruce , Aunt Dan and Lemon , The Fever , and the screenplay for My Dinner with Andreacute; . His most recent play, Grasses of a Thousand Colors , premiered last year in London.