Woven out of three monologues in what one reviewer called "a triple sonata of oppression and incomprehension" (The Sunday Times), Wallace Shawn's new play, The Designated Mourner, is a masterful drama about the pursuit of aesthetic subtleties in brutal times. The three characters include the eponymous designated mourner, Jack; his wife, Judy; and his erudite father-in-law, Howard. Although Judy is tied to her famous father by a passionate bond, she is nonetheless drawn toward Jack, whose taste in cultural forms follows a disturbing path. When Jack abandons both Judy and Howard, he continues his riveting societal free-fall into a world of gleeful savagery.

The Designated Mourner

Literature & Fiction

Shawn, Wallace

Dramas & Plays

Farrar. Straus & Giroux

The Fever

Kept awake by illness, a traveler considers the contradiction of his life of privilege and the suffering found in the country he is visiting

Kept awake by illness, a traveler considers the contradiction of his life of privilege and the suffering found in the country he is visiting

Noonday Pr

Woven out of three monologues in what one reviewer called "a triple sonata of oppression and incomprehension" (The Sunday Times, London), Wallace Shawn's new play is a masterful drama about the self, politics, and the pursuit of aesthetic subtleties in brutal times. The three characters are the eponymous designated mourner, Jack; his wife, Judy; and Judy's erudite father, Howard. Despite a passionate bond with her father, Judy is drawn to Jack, whose taste in cultural forms follows a disturbing path. When Jack abandons both Judy and Howard, he continues his riveting societal free-fall into a world of gleeful savagery. Other works by Wallace Shawn are A Thought in Three Parts, Our Late Night, Marie and Bruce, My Dinner With Andre (co-written with Andre Gregory), Aunt Dan and Lemon, and The Fever.

The Designated Mourner: A Play

Farrar. Straus and Giroux

This first collection of Wallace Shawn's plays from the seventies and eighties brings together A Thought in Three Parts, Marie and Bruce, Aunt Dan and Lemon, and The Fever - four incisive and provocative works that have disturbed theatergoers on both sides of the Atlantic. Shawn's themes include sex, historical guilt, the conflict between high and low culture, and the effort to define the self, all described in a remarkable, attentive language. Brilliant and biting, his plays are sometimes horrifying, sometimes hilarious, but never, ever dull.

Four Plays: A Thought in Three Parts, Marie and Bruce, Aunt Dan and Lemon, The Fever

"A screenplay for the film by Louis Malle."--Cover.

My Dinner with Andrae: A Screenplay

Grove/Atlantic

Aunt Dan &amp; Lemon by Shawn, Wallace. 8vo. BCE

Aunt Dan and Lemon: A Play

GROVE PRESS

Aunt Dan & Lemon takes us into the world of a young recluse named Lemon (alias Leonora) who spends her nights reading chronicles of Nazi atrocities. Lemon tells the audience about the overwhelming influence in her life of her parents' friend "Aunt Dan," an eccentric, passionate professor whose stories and seductive opinions enthrall Lemon from the time she is a young girl. The relationship that develops between Lemon and Aunt Dan and the conversations that went on in a small house on the bottom of an English garden form the focus of this play about political orientation and the allure of certain ideas-even if they lead to murder. A forceful play exposing the banality of society's evil, Aunt Dan & Lemon explores the ease with which good and bad become reconciled in the human mind.

Aunt Dan and Lemon

METHUEN

A daughter is tied to her brilliant father by a passionate bond. But then she is drawn towards an appealing man whose taste in cultural forms follows a disturbing path. The Designated Mourner is a harsh and poetic play about the pursuit of beauty in brutal times.The Designated Mourner premiered at the National Theatre, London, in April 1996.

Faber&Faber

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Shawn, Wallace. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Shawn, Wallace

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Shawn, Wallace. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Designated Mourner

The Fever

The Fever

The Designated Mourner: A Play

Four Plays: A Thought in Three Parts, Marie and Bruce, Aunt Dan and Lemon, The Fever

My Dinner with Andrae: A Screenplay

Aunt Dan and Lemon: A Play

Aunt Dan and Lemon: A Play

Aunt Dan and Lemon

The Designated Mourner