Synopses & Reviews
"Offers the chance to banquet on rich and delectable passions and ideas, washed down with lashings of wit. . . . Its big argumentative poetry screams out that history matters."—The Nation
"A brainy, brawny, thematically expansive work, stuffed with challenging sociopolitical ideas and dialectical fireworks. . . . Kushner's social engagement and his intellectualism are balanced, as always, by his penetrating humanism."—Hollywood Reporter
Gus Marcantonio, a retired longshoreman, summons his adult children home to the family's Brooklyn brownstone to discuss his recent decision to commit suicide. With his trademark mix of soaring intellect, searing emotion, and biting wit, legendary playwright Tony Kushner unfurls an epic tale of revolution, radicalism, family, love, sex, politics, real estate, unions and debts both unpaid and unpayable. With sweeping themes as hefty as its title, "IHo" (as it has been nicknamed) explores the dense and vexing issues that stem from the betrayal of a failed ideology and the challenges of family connectedness. This cerebral mammoth of a play asks what is left when the long-held belief systems that construct and inform one's identity prove to be empty.
An extraordinary play from the renowned author of Angels in America.
Tony Kushner is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, two Tony Awards, three Obie Awards, two Evening Standard Awards, an Olivier Award, an Emmy Award, two Oscar nominations, and the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, among other honors. In 2012, he was awarded a National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama.
Synopsis
An extraordinary play from the renowned author of Angels in America.
Synopsis
GUS MARCANTONIO, A RETIRED LONGSHOREMAN, SUMMONS his adult children home to the family's Brooklyn brownstone to discuss his recent decision to commit suicide. With his trademark mix of soaring intel-lect, searing emotion, and biting wit, Kushner unfurls an epic tale of revolu-tion, radicalism, family, love, sex, politics, real estate, unions, and debts both unpaid and unpayable.
Synopsis
"iHo is a vast, rich work of public-intellectual engagement. . . The values built into this beautifully inquiring play operate outside of common dramatic economies. Kushner's carefully organized labor of love is a spur to the active mind."--Adam Feldman, Time Out New York
Gus Marcantonio, a retired longshoreman, summons his adult children home to the family's Brooklyn brownstone to discuss his recent decision to commit suicide. With his trademark mix of soaring intel-lect, searing emotion, and biting wit, Kushner unfurls an epic tale of revolu-tion, radicalism, family, love, sex, politics, real estate, unions, and debts both unpaid and unpayable.
"Thrillingly ambitious . . . I walked into New York's Public Theater . . . genuinely excited to find out what was on the author's mind and left with enough food for thought to last a theatrical winter."--Charles McNulty, Culture Monster, Los Angeles Times
"At a time when citizens feel trapped in the eternal present of the twenty-four-hour news cycle, iHo's big argumentative poetry screams out that history matters."--Margaret Spillane, Nation
"A humane, impassioned play . . . vast in length, argument and scope. It is attractively ambitious, grappling with deep socio-political change and loss of direction: a huge, generous and meaty state-of-the-nation work wrapped in a family drama."--Sarah Hemming, Financial Times
About the Author
Tony Kushners plays include A Bright Room Called Day, Angels in America, Parts One and Two, Slavs!, Homebody/Kabul, the musical Caroline, or Change and the opera A Blizzard on Marblehead Neck, both with composer Jeanine Tesori. He has adapted and translated Pierre Corneilles The Illusion, S.Y. Anskys The Dybbuk, Bertolt Brechts The Good Person of Szechwan and Mother Courage and Her Children and the English-language libretto for the opera Brundibár by Hans Krasa. He wrote the screenplays for Mike Nicholss film of Angels in America, and for Steven Spielbergs Munich and Lincoln. His books include Brundibar, with illustrations by Maurice Sendak, The Art of Maurice Sendak, 1980 to the Present and Wrestling With Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict, co-edited with Alisa Solomon. Kushner is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, two Tony Awards, three Obie Awards, two Evening Standard Awards, an Olivier Award, an Emmy Award, two Oscar nominations, and the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, among other honors. In 2012, he was awarded a National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama. He lives in Manhattan with his husband, Mark Harris.