Synopses & Reviews
Review
"Durang is probably best known for Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You, which ignited storms of protest and played to sold-out houses wherever it was produced in the early 1980s Durang uses his absurd humor to challenge the rigidity of some religious beliefs, as well as homophobia, methods of psychoanalysis, marriage, and parenthood....His plays may offend some, but they are always thought-provoking and entertaining." Library Journal
Synopsis
Few playwrights have explored as relentlessly as Christopher Durang the pain and confusion of everyday life--or made us laugh so uproariously at the results. Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You, the center of a storm of controversy for its satire of misplaced trust in religious authority," remains as powerful today as when it was originally produced. The excruciatingly funny The Nature and Purpose of the Universe asks whether Eleanor Mann's Job-like suffering is really her fault, while Titanic takes us into the heart of children's anger with their parents and parents' manipula-tion of their children. In Beyond Therapy, two horrifyingly human therapists pursue their own needs at the expense of the most mismatched couple ever to meet through a personal ad.
Also including 'Dentity Crisis and The Actor's Nightmare, this collection demonstrates that laughter is the best surgery, slicing through prejudice and hypocrisy, cutting out dead beliefs and inflamed opinions. These dark comedies, lit by lightning bolts of truth and humor, are among the most illuminating in American drama, by "one of the most explosively funny American dramatists" (Newsweek).
Includes:
The Nature and Purpose of the Universe
'Dentity Crisis
Titanic
The Actor's Nightmare
Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You
Beyond Therapy
Synopsis
Few playwrights have explored as relentlessly as Christopher Durang the pain and confusion of everyday life-or made us laugh so uproariously at the results.
About the Author
Educated at Harvard College and the Yale School of Drama, Christopher Durang has had plays both on and off Broadway including The Nature and Purpose of the Universe; Titanic; A History of the American Film; Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You; Beyond Therapy; Baby With the Bathwater; The Marriage of Bette and Boo; Laughing Wild; and Betty's Summer Vacation. He won Obie Awards for Sister Mary Ignatius and The Marriage of Bette and Boo, received a Tony nomination for "Best Book of a Musical" for A History of the American Film, and received a Drama Desk nomination for Betty's Summer Vacation.
Table of Contents
The nature and purpose of the universe -- 'Dentity crisis -- Titanic -- The actor's nightmare -- Sister Mary Ignatius explains it all for you -- Beyond therapy.