Golem Triptych: A Dramatic Trilogy: A Dramatic Trilogy by Eric Basso

by Eric Basso

Completed in 1983, this mesmerizing dramatic trilogy is destined to take its place beside The Playboy of the Western World, Waiting for Godot and The Homecoming as a classic of the modern theatre. Always surprising, witty and intelligent, Basso's plays move gracefully through both history and the history of theatre, incorporating at times the slapstick of Ionesco, the brooding heaviness of Ibsen, the passion, language and scope of the great Elizabethan dramatists. A powerfully moving odyssey, a transmutation of language from base metal to gold, a work of grandeur and pity.

Genres: Drama, Weird Fiction

Paperback

First published January 25, 2005

About the author

Eric Basso was born in Baltimore in 1947. His work has appeared in Asylum Annual, Bakunin, Central Park, Chicago Review, Collages & Bricolages, Exquisite Corpse, Fiction International, and many other publications. His novel, Bartholomew Fair, is available from Asylum Arts. He is the author of twenty-one plays. His critically acclaimed drama trilogy, The Golem Triptych; the complete short plays, Enigmas; his play The Sabbatier Effect; a book of short fiction, The Beak Doctor; and five collections of poetry, Accidental Monsters, The Catwalk Watch, The Smoking Mirror, Catafalques, and Ghost Light, are available from Asylum Arts, along with Decompositions: Essays on Art & Literature 1973-1989 and Revagations: 1966-1974, the first volume of a book of dreams. Basso's most recent previous collection of poems, Earthworks, was published by Six Gallery Press in 2008.

Reviews

[Damian Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars for the first two plays, Middle Distance and Joseph in the Underground, 6 stars for The Fall of Prague. The first two read like elaborations on the one-act plays in Basso's book Enigmas (though I think the latter may have been written after them). The Fall of Prague is something different altogether, though it follows perfectly on the others. All three plays should be read together, as there's a lot to keep track of between them.

An enigmatic game of shifting identities and perplexing implications becomes a whirling kaleidoscope in the third play, which is set in the Prague of Rudolf II and features madness, betrayal, necromancy, visions, a complex tangle of mistaken identities, and every type of deception. All of these elements have their seeds in the first two plays, which themselves reference both the myth of the golem and the story of Faust.

More people should read Eric Basso. Some attention has been given to The Beak Doctor, which itself is very good, but this is something else entirely.

[Nate D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Within the labyrinth of uncertainties and repeated signs of 20th century memory/history. Basso uses the psychological remove of the theatrical space to great effect as identities and roles become fluid and changeable by will of the insistent logic of the words and scenes arrangements. The first two, more uncertain plays of the triptych are most mysterious and interesting, but the last veers towards more familiar (if oddly conveyed) historical drama. Still, I'd love to see this staged. Has it been, ever?

[Patrick Higgins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unsettling, confusing, and epic, Basso's dramatic trilogy was my first look into the mind of the modernist/surrealist/weird author and it was a powerful, if sometimes difficult, journey. Moving from some vaguely modern London, to an underground city, to Renaissance Prague, the plays meld pessimistic philosophical ruminations on time and identity with fantastic imagery and events. It is to Basso's credit that he can create a such a fantastic world in a medium that is, at its heart, nothing but dialogue. The dialogue bridges several literary styles in a way that will be fascinating to those readers familiar with a fair bit of literary history, but will likely frustrate many others. Basso expects a lot from the reader in this one, but for the patient (and those who don't mind quite a bit of ambiguity in a story) the Golem Triptych is a poetic, thought-provoking ride into the past to explore the dark thoughts of man.

[Sofia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting parts and aspects, but not great from a theatrical perspective.