Tiny Kushner: Five One-Act Plays

by Professor Tony Kushner

"A slam-bang series of five plays providing kaleidoscopic windows into the recesses of the artist's fertile mind. . . . "Tiny Kushner" exists in its own imaginative realm, engaged in the process of working out the American experience without approval or condemnation."--"Variety""Kushner's eclectic, wicked wit makes for a great deal of charm and excitement. . . . Hefty political and moral issues dance with buoyant shtick. . . . Penetrating comedy and theatrical strokes light up the stage."--"San Francisco Chronicle"Described as "a thinking person's comedy" ("The New York Times"), "Tiny Kushner" is a series of five short works from one of the most important voices in the American theater. Best known for his Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning seven-hour epic "Angels in America," Tony Kushner shows audiences his talent for brevity with this collection of works, which recently co-premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. The pieces include no fewer than two therapy sessions (one with Richard Nixon's shrink), a trip to the moon, Queen Geraldine of Albania, tax-evading New York City cops, and Laura Bush reading Dostoyevsky to a class of dead Iraqi schoolchildren--to give you a taste. "Flip Flop Fly!"; "Terminating or Sonnet LXXV or "Lass Meine Schmerzen Nicht Verloren Sein" or Ambivalence"; "East Coast Ode to Howard a little teleplay in tiny monologues"; "Dr. Arnold A. Hutschnecker in Paradise"; and "Only We Who Guard the Mystery Shall Be Unhappy."Tony Kushner's plays include "A Bright Room Called Day"; "Angels in America, Parts One and Two"; "Slavs!"; "Homebody/Kabul"; and the book and lyrics for "Caroline, or Change." His many honors include the Pulitzer Prize, two Tony Awards for Best Play, and three OBIE Awards for Playwriting.

Genres: Plays

192 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five short plays by Tony Kushner, but because they are Kushner, they don’t feel short. Includes plays about a tax revolt by New York City cops, Nixon’s analyst in heaven, the last queen of Albania on the moon and Laura Bush reading The Brothers Karamazov to dead Iraqi children. Bought at Strand Bookstore, online.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked 3/5 of these plays but the ones I liked— “Flip Flop Fly”, “Terminating”, and “Only We Who Guard The Mystery Shall Be Unhappy” — were typical amazing kushner boiled down. I wish he would expand and make these three full plays!

[Kat Hawthorne · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolutely brilliant

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three of these one-acts were new to me, but in the end it was the two more familiar ones--Terminating or Sonnet LXXV or "Lass Meine Schmerzen Nicht Verloren Sein" or Ambivalence and particularly East Coast Ode to Howard Jarvis: A Little Teleplay in Tiny Monologues--that I loved best.

(East Coast Ode was previously published in Death and Taxes: Hydrotaphia and Other Plays, and Terminating in both Death and Taxes and the anthology Love's Fire: Seven New Plays Inspired by Seven Shakespearean Sonnets.)

[Chas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd read a few of these in the Hydriotaphia collection, and they're just as good here. There are more ideas in these five little plays than most playwrights have in their entire careers.