Telephone

by Ariana Reines

Telephone is a theatrical triptych inspired by Avital Ronell’s The Telephone Book, an epic work that draws upon history, philosophy, psychoanalysis and literature to explore the nature of communication in the age of technology. Like the book, Reines’ play operates like a switchboard, connecting people and places across time and space.

Genres: Poetry, Plays

122 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2018

About the author

Ariana Reines is the author of The Cow (Alberta Prize, FenceBooks: 2006), Coeur de Lion (Mal-O-Mar: 2007; Fence: 2011), and MERCURY (Fence: forthcoming fall 2011), plus the LP/audiobook SAVE THE WORLD starring Lili Taylor (Fence: forthcoming spring 2011).


Volumes of translation include My Heart Laid Bare by Charles Baudelaire, (Mal-O-Mar:2009), The Little Black Book of Grisélidis Réal: Days and Nights of an Anarchist Whore by Jean-Luc Hennig, (Semiotext(e): 2009), and the forthcoming Preliminary Notes Toward a Theory of the YoungGirl by TIQQUN, (Semiotext(e): 2012).


TELEPHONE, her first play, was commissioned and produced by The Foundry Theatre and presented at The Cherry Lane Theatre in New York, February 2009. The production won two Obies and a spin-off was featured in the Works+Process series at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Fall 2009. TELEPHONE was be published in Fall 2009 in PLAY: A Journal of Plays.

Reviews

[Joanna Forde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Telephone is a simple yet eloquent depiction of the initial development of communication. Whether the voices materialize through an unfamiliar piece of technology or from the mind (an arguably mysterious organic form of technology), there is a new feat to be discovered. The play is a poetic dissection of the complexities behind simple questions of a faceless voice. Reines divides the play (poem) into three distinct sections to describe alleged communications between people, real or imagined. The farce lies in what remains unsaid, and what should not have been said, breaking the barriers of untold insanity. Beautifully written with style and care, you find yourself entwined with characters detached from circumstances they are supposed to be alive in. Telephone is a testament to the disconnect that arises from infinite lines of communication.

[Carolyn DeCarlo · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be clear, this is strictly a review of the script in this form and not the performed play itself. I imagine watching this as a performance on stage would give a very different vibe. But from the text itself, I felt the three sections were wildly uneven; the first – intellectual, funny, and slightly wry; the second nearly inscrutable, impenetrable, a tedious act of looking without really reading, or reading without absorbing; the third thin and light, easy, a true foil for part two. The more I think about this book in retrospect, the more I would like to see it performed. I do wonder how much of my dislike for part two would be removed from seeing it live. Having been published in book form for the first time ten years after it was performed, I have a suspicion my issue is largely with the print version, not the play.

[Always Becominging · Rating 4 out of 5]

A challenging but rewarding play. I loved the first and thirds acts for their concision and humour. They definitely reminded me of Beckett. The second act felt like the heart of the work to me. It’s a dense monologue of complete gibberish, an incredible representation of schizophrenic thought. There are moments of beautiful and hilarious language and I was intrigued by the echoes of phrases from the first act. Definitely not everyone but a great text to analyse and discuss.