The Theatre of Wallace Shawn (work-in-progress)

It has become a cliché to begin any consideration about Wallace Shawn’s writing career with the claim that he is the most famous unknown American playwright. This assertion has worn out any usefulness it once served. He is certainly more familiar because of his acting career, but his plays are known. They have been staged throughout the world and adapted to cinema; won prestige awards and been condemned in the House of Lords. But there is no denying that the Shawn canon—Our Late Night (1975), A Thought in Three Parts (1977), Marie and Bruce (1979), The Hotel Play (1971), Aunt Dan and Lemon (1985), The Fever (1990), The Designated Mourner (1997), Grasses of a Thousand Colors (2008), and Evening at the Talk House (2015)—occupies a liminal space in American drama. This book addresses that liminality. It examines the language and form of Shawn's theatre and considers critical and popular reception over time.