Five Plays

by Michael Weller

“It’s hard to think of a writer who knows his generation better than Michael Weller.” —Frank Rich, New York Times Michael Weller’s early work chronicled American culture as it was taken apart and reformed in the turbulent ’60s. This volume collects his best-known plays of the ’70s and ’80s, including the now-classic Moonchildren, Fishing, At Home, Abroad and Loose Ends. Also includes a new introduction by the author.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Drama

274 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 1997

About the author

Michael Weller studied music composition at Brandeis University, then worked as a jazz pianist before taking his graduate degree in theater at the University of Manchester, England. His best-known plays are Moonchildren, Fishing, Loose Ends and Spoils Of War. His films include Hair and Ragtime and a teleplay of Spoils of War. He co-founded (with Angelina Fiordelissi and Suzanne Brinkley) and serves now as supervising mentor of the Mentor Project of the Cherry Lane Theatre, currently in its tenth season.

Mr. Weller's work has received an Academy Award nomination, an N.A.A.C.P. Outstanding Contribution Award, Critics Outer Circle Award, a Rockefeller Foundation Grant and a Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award, and has been honored by The Broken Watch Theatre Company which gave their playhouse his name. He is on the counsel of the Writer's Guild Fund and the Dramatists Guild of America. He lives in Brooklyn.

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I spontaneously grabbed this collection at the library one day, and I wasn't disappointed ‑ this turned out to be an enjoyable read, a breezy and humorous, yet sensitive look at young Americans in the 1970s.  Therein also lies the weakness of these plays; they are thoroughly grounded in the concerns of those times and Weller is known primarily as a playwright of the 1970s, as well as for his screenplays.

"Moonchildren" is probably the best known of these plays. It is about a group of university students sharing a house together.   The story bounces around, focusing on different things in their lives, such as love and sex, Vietnam peace marches, and what to do after graduation.  They encounter representatives of the older generation who seem either puzzled or hostile toward them.  Throughout an irreverent tone is maintained, the defensive and offensive ironic put‑ons of the sixties generation.  There is no main character or problem, one character has to deal with the impending death of his mother, another with the loneliness he hides beneath a "cool" surface (or was it the same guy?), others are concerned about what to do with their lives. Overall it is a fairly enjoyable period piece.

"Fishing" was possibly my favorite of the bunch; it focuses on a slightly smaller group so that the characterization is more complete.  It is about five people in the Northwest somewhere, entering their thirties and trying, successfully or less successfully, to make something of their lives.   The theme is the dissolution of the hippie dream, and some of the damage that resulted from years of doing drugs and having an impractical view of life.  One of the characters, Rory, is a total burnout, and some of the others are experiencing things like alienation, listlessness, and confusion.  At least they are having trouble communicating with one another.  There is a funny scene in which the main characters, having taken peyote, go out to the seaside and wander around in a fog, misunderstanding and irritating each other.  The way the alienation is expressed is very interesting, for this is not a Bergmanesque psychodrama, but a very bleak and very funny dark comedy.  In fact, it gets a little too dark when a character named Reilly appears, suffering from a brain tumor, and slapstick humor is attempted by his screaming and passing out.  But generally the line is not crossed, and the dialogue goes more like this:

      SHELLY: What does the fog make you think of?
            ROBBIE: Death.
            SHELLY: Really?
            ROBBIE: Yes. Or life. In that area.
and:
DANE: . . . Me and Mary Ellen hiked to the top and took acid.  What a strange trip that was.  The sounds you can hear on acid, just lying there naked ... You could hear the sun moving around the sky.   Whhsssh.  And roots moving through the ground under your head.  Insects. Ants all over our bodies.  Thousands of ants, thousands of tiny legs running all over ... I just flipped out and everything in my body came out.  I was urinating and defecating and crying and my nose was running and I was sweating ... Mary Ellen didn't seem to notice. She was rubbing against trees. ..
MARY‑ELLEN: I remember.  I was being a grizzly bear.
     
[SPOILER ALERT] The play does end up on a more or less hopeful note when Bill and Robbie come up with the money to buy a fishing boat and make a go of it as fishermen.  Upbeat note at the end or not, it is still a downer play, and one well worth reading.

The two parts of "Split" I did not like very much.   The characters don't seem very interesting, so that when their breakup occurs, one doesn't care very much.  And the breakup occurs for the flimsiest of reasons, so the situation is less than credible.   Part 2 is completely different from Part 1; the two barely seem connected.

       "Loose Ends" is another very well known play; it was performed at Circle in the Square back in 1980 or 81, with Kevin Kline and Roxanne Hart as the leads.  The story concerns the life of a couple and the progression of changes in their lives, which mirror the course of the generation of people who went to college in the 1960s.  They start out as young, beginning to be disillusioned hippies meeting on a beach in Bali in 1970. With progressive scenes the play moves forward a year or two at a time, first showing Paul and Susan visiting some back‑to‑nature hipster buddies at a mobile home in the country.  A couple of years later they are living in Boston and starting to develop careers, he as a film editor and she as a photographer.  There are other characters who make appearances and provide action and comedy, sometimes changing over the years, sometimes not.   There are hints of trouble between them, and the tension finally explodes at the end when they have both attained successful jobs and are living on Central Park West. [SPOILER ALERT] Susan gets pregnant and then has an abortion without informing Paul.  He somehow finds out and blows up at her in the middle of A birthday party for her.   The play ends with the two of them, both seeing other people, getting together for a session of talking and lovemaking.  But it is not a reconciliation, it is just a fling for the sake of days gone by.   And even though they love each other, they are unable to be partners, both of them wounded by an inability to make a wholehearted commitment to each other and to raising a family.

       In an introduction by Alan Schneider, Weller is praised to the heavens and compared to Chekhov.  I wouldn't go that far, but I did enjoy this book. P.S. Sorry for the screwy punctuation in this post. GR is acting up a bit.

[tenderfoot]

Moonchildren, Fishing, At Home, Abroad, Loose Ends

[Tim Pinckney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these plays and I love Michael Weller. His voice is so clear and his dialogue is always spot on and honest. He creates fascinating characters; smart, articulate, sometimes a bit unhinged. These plays are all from the 1970s. I like them all but Loose Ends is, in particular, a gorgeous piece of work.

[Steffy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved these plays. The characters are lively and almost too witty and quirky, but the situations and arguments and feelings are all too real. Despite being very 70s, these all still feel relevant today.

[Caroline Puschinsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written plays.

I really enjoyed reading Loose Ends and I highly recommend this collection. It is full of wonderful monologues and scenes for acting students.