The Difficulty of Crossing a Field: Nine New Plays

by Mac Wellman, Buddy Thomas, Helen Shaw (Foreword)

Known for his verbal invention and radical experimentation, Mac Wellman is one of America’s most original and essential dramatists. Since seizing the spotlight with 7 Blowjobs in the early nineties, Wellman has charted an ambitious artistic course. As a fixture on the downtown New York theater scene, and now with his work being staged around the world, he has challenged directors, designers, producers, actors, audiences, and readers for nearly three decades.

In this new book, Wellman brings together nine recent plays, including some of his most provocative work, Antigone, Infrared, and The Invention of Tragedy. With their feisty heroines, crisp dialogue, and noir influences, the works in The Difficulty of Crossing a Field reveal a playwright at the peak of his powers, and the collection concludes with Speculations, Wellman’s bold theatrical vision presented as lyrical prose.

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ambrose Bierce is now alive and kicking in my head. (Welcome, Ambrose!) I can't say I understood everything going on (and not going on) in these plays, nor am convinced they needed to be so frequently subverting. But when they got me, they got me. And their insistence on not giving me Geezer food refreshes all of me. The language is music and the idea of using these texts to make something happen in time and space is perfectly scary!

Thank you to the Emergency Poetry Clinic visitor who recommended Mac Wellman to me.