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Alice Invents a Little Game and Alice Always Wins
In this first play from the award-winning memoirist and poet Nick Flynn, four strangers meet during a blackout on a New York City sidewalk. Gideon finds himself locked out of his apartment, stranded on the street with nothing but a television and the company of three individuals, each mysterious in their own the specter-like Alice, ringleader of the neighborhood; Esra, a fifteen-year-old girl whose mother is MIA―again; and Ivan, a stranded businessman trying to make his way home. As Gideon makes futile attempts to break into an apartment that may or may not be his, an unsettling connection between Ivan and Esra develops while Alice and Gideon look on helplessly. Unable to make sense of their predicament, let alone alter it, the four float aimlessly in and out of seeming reality only to find themselves more lost when the electricity finally comes back on.
Once again exploring the tenuous membrane that separates comfortable, everyday existence from the desperate margins of society, Flynn portrays an urban dystopia disturbingly similar to our own world while poignantly tapping into the loneliness and peril of city life.
Once again exploring the tenuous membrane that separates comfortable, everyday existence from the desperate margins of society, Flynn portrays an urban dystopia disturbingly similar to our own world while poignantly tapping into the loneliness and peril of city life.
67 pages, Paperback
First published July 8, 2008
150 people want to read
About the author
Nick Flynn
53 books386 followersNick Flynn is an American writer, playwright, and poet.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
October 31, 2009
poet, memoirist, essayist, and playwright, it seems the talented nick flynn knows no literary boundaries. alice invents a little game and alice always wins is a slim, three-act play of urban surreality inspired by a combination of moments experienced by flynn and by the political climate and policies of bush-era america. with only four characters and a single, mostly unchanging setting, the plot revolves around the peculiarity of the characters' situation and the uncertainty of their relationship with one another. flynn's first dramatic work does indeed resemble, in part, the plays of the late harold pinter, nobel laureate and political activist, whom he mentions in the afterword. without flynn's illuminating afterword, where he traces the play's origin and outlines many of the thematic elements he was striving to convey, some of the overall effect of the work may have been tended towards obfuscation. while drama is undoubtedly a difficult medium to work within (and comes with the risk of alienating those without any real interest or background in theater), flynn's first attempt is a bold, serious effort. as with many plays, there are certain benefits to seeing it produced upon the stage, but in the case of alice invents a little game and alice always wins, even a solitary reading offers one a rewarding experience.
from the afterword:
sometimes, when the phrase "alice invents a little game and alice always wins" was rolling around in my head, before the writing began, i imagined alice to be a metaphor for america, and her game like a game of musical chairs, with the idea that the music was about to end. musical chairs always seemed the prototypical capitalist game, creating a sense of desperation and competition among friends. who is it that gets to take away one chair each time, and where do the chairs go, and who lifts the needle from the vinyl? that was an idea i had in the initial drafts, but in the end the alice in the play does not seem like the one who lifts the needle from the vinyl, or the one who takes away the chairs. in these pages, she is as bewildered as everyone else, if slightly more accepting of that bewilderment, which gives her whatever power she may have. she is, perhaps, simply one of the many who found a way to live without a chair, so to speak, earlier than the rest of us.
from the afterword:
sometimes, when the phrase "alice invents a little game and alice always wins" was rolling around in my head, before the writing began, i imagined alice to be a metaphor for america, and her game like a game of musical chairs, with the idea that the music was about to end. musical chairs always seemed the prototypical capitalist game, creating a sense of desperation and competition among friends. who is it that gets to take away one chair each time, and where do the chairs go, and who lifts the needle from the vinyl? that was an idea i had in the initial drafts, but in the end the alice in the play does not seem like the one who lifts the needle from the vinyl, or the one who takes away the chairs. in these pages, she is as bewildered as everyone else, if slightly more accepting of that bewilderment, which gives her whatever power she may have. she is, perhaps, simply one of the many who found a way to live without a chair, so to speak, earlier than the rest of us.
September 9, 2018
Brilliant. Absurd. Jarring. I read this while I was homeless (by choice), which added an ache to the read. I love how clarity appears in each of the characters variously, unrelated to age and circumstance. A perfect stage: outside the store front window. I love how it stays here: shut out. (And then, the Afterward, with the reveal of how Nick Flynn's personal story informed this play. Wow.)
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November 15, 2011"Alice Invents a Little Game and Alice Always Wins” is a short play by American writer, memoirist, play write, and poet Nick Flynn. The play is only 67 pages in length, meaning the writer had limited space to set up the story, bring it to a climax, and resolve the conflict. I would like to think that the length constraint is what led the play to disappoint me; there was no background or exposition provided, the writer just dove right in to the plot. Some readers enjoy plays and novels set up in this manner. Unfortunately, I am not one of those people. Reviewing the play, I feel like there was not enough development of the situation. On the surface, the plot of the play revolved around four different people spending time on a sidewalk in New York City during an electrical blackout. And the surface is just as deep as the play goes. I discovered nothing about the characters. I witnessed no development, grew no attachments to the protagonist, and felt no connection with any of the persons involved. To be blunt; this play was a struggle to finish reading.
Nick Flynn employs a unique strategy when introducing his characters. He brings them in right away, one by one. First, we meet Gideon, a frustrated man who seems to be locked out of his apartment. Next, there is Alice. There is not much to say about Alice, considering Flynn clearly meant for her to remain the “mysterious” character. She is simply a woman sitting on a chair outside of the building. I am not sure if I was supposed to see her as a symbol of something, but instead she seems like a gluttonous vagabond who takes joy in watching others suffer more than she does. Is she homeless? Perhaps. But a reader of the play would not know considering Flynn provides us with no insight to the matter. In fact, he gives readers absolutely no insight to anything going on at all. The vagueness of his writing may be a stylistic choice, but this style did not work for me. In Mr. Flynn’s defense, this is a play, which means it is meant to be watched. But to be honest I cannot imagine being able to sit through a reading of this play, despite it only being 67 short pages.
After the audience is introduced to Alice they meet Esra, a fifteen-year-old girl who has been separated from her mother for quite some time. Lastly, Ivan, a possibly perverted and clearly troubled businessman joins the cast on the sidewalk. The four strangers share awkward interactions and seemingly meaningless conversation over however many days they sit on the sidewalk. They are an unlikely combination, put together for a reason I have yet to comprehend.
While the characters of “Alice” exist in a fictional citywide blackout, readers of the play are also stuck in the dark. I am all for a mysterious air to a story, but the overall ambiguity of “Alice” left me feeling unfulfilled, uninterested, and overall disappointed. Nick Flynn may be an amazing author when it comes to his memoir “Another Bullshit Night in Suck City”, but for me, “Alice” is a confusing read with underdeveloped, unexplained characters and a pointless plot.
Nick Flynn employs a unique strategy when introducing his characters. He brings them in right away, one by one. First, we meet Gideon, a frustrated man who seems to be locked out of his apartment. Next, there is Alice. There is not much to say about Alice, considering Flynn clearly meant for her to remain the “mysterious” character. She is simply a woman sitting on a chair outside of the building. I am not sure if I was supposed to see her as a symbol of something, but instead she seems like a gluttonous vagabond who takes joy in watching others suffer more than she does. Is she homeless? Perhaps. But a reader of the play would not know considering Flynn provides us with no insight to the matter. In fact, he gives readers absolutely no insight to anything going on at all. The vagueness of his writing may be a stylistic choice, but this style did not work for me. In Mr. Flynn’s defense, this is a play, which means it is meant to be watched. But to be honest I cannot imagine being able to sit through a reading of this play, despite it only being 67 short pages.
After the audience is introduced to Alice they meet Esra, a fifteen-year-old girl who has been separated from her mother for quite some time. Lastly, Ivan, a possibly perverted and clearly troubled businessman joins the cast on the sidewalk. The four strangers share awkward interactions and seemingly meaningless conversation over however many days they sit on the sidewalk. They are an unlikely combination, put together for a reason I have yet to comprehend.
While the characters of “Alice” exist in a fictional citywide blackout, readers of the play are also stuck in the dark. I am all for a mysterious air to a story, but the overall ambiguity of “Alice” left me feeling unfulfilled, uninterested, and overall disappointed. Nick Flynn may be an amazing author when it comes to his memoir “Another Bullshit Night in Suck City”, but for me, “Alice” is a confusing read with underdeveloped, unexplained characters and a pointless plot.
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October 5, 2011Alice Invents a Little Game and Alice Always Wins: A Play by Nick Flynn
Faber and Faber, Inc., New York, 2008.
“Alice: Knock, Knock… Now you say, Who’s there?”
Alice Invents a Little Game and Alice Always Wins is a very unique play. The characters draw each other in and push each other away much in the same way that they intrigue the audience only to confuse us more. With only fifty-eight pages and one setting, Nick Flynn manages to build a world containing four very different characters lead us through a twisted journey.
The play Alice Invents a Little Game and Alice Always Wins is told entirely by four characters, Alice, Gideon, Esra, and Ivan, on a sidewalk in front of an apartment building. We never get to see anything besides the outside of this building, and we only have the characters’ word that they actually did anything they mention that took place out of this setting. Alice watches everything from her chair on the sidewalk, Gideon just wants to get back into “the apartment that may or may not be his” as the summary says, Esra is wasting time while waiting for her mother to come home and let her in, and Ivan keeps showing up but never gives a reason for his presence. They all seem to be stuck together under strange circumstances that could possibly be a game of Alice’s making, which is suggested by the title.
The writing style is succinct and to the point, but detailed enough for the reader to perfectly visualize everything from the setting and props to the characters’ movements. I am more used to reading film screenplays than I am reading plays so I’m not sure what is normal for a play, but I noticed that in descriptions he often left out small words like “the”. This seemed strange to me, but it worked fine; I was never confused by the writing style. Flynn described every move the characters made, including facial movements, which really helped me to visualize what they would be doing on stage.
“Unable to make sense of their predicament, let alone alter it, the four float aimlessly in and out of seeming reality…” this description given in the summary perfectly fits the characters. I felt as though they were just as confused as I was at times, and none seemed to know what to do next or how they would even go about doing it if they had an idea. The characters took turns leaving the stage to go out into the world, but all returned to the apartment building. Each character has a different reason for being there, but it was hard to tell who was being honest; Esra is the only character whose reasons for staying I understood and believed.
This book showed how to have extremely different characters interact, and how to keep your characters’ pasts and motivations mysterious while still having character development. I would definitely use the same style of characterization in my own work now that I have seen it. It was interesting to see which bonds formed between which characters as the play progressed.
Faber and Faber, Inc., New York, 2008.
“Alice: Knock, Knock… Now you say, Who’s there?”
Alice Invents a Little Game and Alice Always Wins is a very unique play. The characters draw each other in and push each other away much in the same way that they intrigue the audience only to confuse us more. With only fifty-eight pages and one setting, Nick Flynn manages to build a world containing four very different characters lead us through a twisted journey.
The play Alice Invents a Little Game and Alice Always Wins is told entirely by four characters, Alice, Gideon, Esra, and Ivan, on a sidewalk in front of an apartment building. We never get to see anything besides the outside of this building, and we only have the characters’ word that they actually did anything they mention that took place out of this setting. Alice watches everything from her chair on the sidewalk, Gideon just wants to get back into “the apartment that may or may not be his” as the summary says, Esra is wasting time while waiting for her mother to come home and let her in, and Ivan keeps showing up but never gives a reason for his presence. They all seem to be stuck together under strange circumstances that could possibly be a game of Alice’s making, which is suggested by the title.
The writing style is succinct and to the point, but detailed enough for the reader to perfectly visualize everything from the setting and props to the characters’ movements. I am more used to reading film screenplays than I am reading plays so I’m not sure what is normal for a play, but I noticed that in descriptions he often left out small words like “the”. This seemed strange to me, but it worked fine; I was never confused by the writing style. Flynn described every move the characters made, including facial movements, which really helped me to visualize what they would be doing on stage.
“Unable to make sense of their predicament, let alone alter it, the four float aimlessly in and out of seeming reality…” this description given in the summary perfectly fits the characters. I felt as though they were just as confused as I was at times, and none seemed to know what to do next or how they would even go about doing it if they had an idea. The characters took turns leaving the stage to go out into the world, but all returned to the apartment building. Each character has a different reason for being there, but it was hard to tell who was being honest; Esra is the only character whose reasons for staying I understood and believed.
This book showed how to have extremely different characters interact, and how to keep your characters’ pasts and motivations mysterious while still having character development. I would definitely use the same style of characterization in my own work now that I have seen it. It was interesting to see which bonds formed between which characters as the play progressed.
October 5, 2011
Alice invents a little game and Alice always wins by Nick Flynn
Published: 2008 by Faber and Faber, Inc.
From the author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City comes a play that is incredibly thought provoking. Flynn introduces us to four characters living in New York City during a blackout. It seems that something more serious that a normal blackout, like a catastrophe has happen, but exactly what happened is never addressed. The reader is introduced to Gideon who has locked himself out of his apartment. While he is confined to the stoop waiting for a generous neighbor to let him in, he meets Alice, Ersa and Ivan. Alice seems like the puppeteer holding the strings but letting the puppets move themselves. Ersa is fifteen and has a mind of her own. Ivan is a wandering businessman who spends a lot of time reminiscing. The blackout forces people to see everyone in the light, as ironic as that sounds.
The most interesting character I thought was the intercom. A voice speaks from it stating thoughts and opinions that make you stop and wonder about what the voice says. The voice also repeats a line from The Beatles’ song “Come Together”: One and one and one is three. Which is what I think is the message Alice wants the others to learn, for them to come together to help one another through a difficult time.
The dialogue between the characters seems natural and flows evenly from one to another. The characters hold onto their personalities throughout the story, never changing, just being. It’s interesting to slowly find out more and more about each person through observation and assumptions. None of it really matters. Nothing matters. Just being together is what matters.
Throughout the play, the characters explore different ideas through their conversations. Would living outside for a year take a permanent toll on a human being? What would it be like to be tied to a stranger for a year? Should we all move to Africa and hire an army for a dollar a day?
The play shifts between real action and what seems to be the subconscious, of whom I am not sure. After reading this play I was left with more questions that answers. It did make me stop and think about life. Who is calling the shots, if anyone is at all. However, I did enjoy this play. It was as if I had stepped into the mind of Nick Flynn for a few acts. What he says the afterword stuck with me most:
“Sometimes it seems like this great game of musical chairs we’ve been playing in America is coming to an end, that the music is stopping more and more frequently, that there are fewer and fewer chairs.”
The American people are more concerned about winning than playing together. Alice just wants them to help each other find chairs instead of ripping it away before the others’ bottom touches the chair.
Published: 2008 by Faber and Faber, Inc.
From the author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City comes a play that is incredibly thought provoking. Flynn introduces us to four characters living in New York City during a blackout. It seems that something more serious that a normal blackout, like a catastrophe has happen, but exactly what happened is never addressed. The reader is introduced to Gideon who has locked himself out of his apartment. While he is confined to the stoop waiting for a generous neighbor to let him in, he meets Alice, Ersa and Ivan. Alice seems like the puppeteer holding the strings but letting the puppets move themselves. Ersa is fifteen and has a mind of her own. Ivan is a wandering businessman who spends a lot of time reminiscing. The blackout forces people to see everyone in the light, as ironic as that sounds.
The most interesting character I thought was the intercom. A voice speaks from it stating thoughts and opinions that make you stop and wonder about what the voice says. The voice also repeats a line from The Beatles’ song “Come Together”: One and one and one is three. Which is what I think is the message Alice wants the others to learn, for them to come together to help one another through a difficult time.
The dialogue between the characters seems natural and flows evenly from one to another. The characters hold onto their personalities throughout the story, never changing, just being. It’s interesting to slowly find out more and more about each person through observation and assumptions. None of it really matters. Nothing matters. Just being together is what matters.
Throughout the play, the characters explore different ideas through their conversations. Would living outside for a year take a permanent toll on a human being? What would it be like to be tied to a stranger for a year? Should we all move to Africa and hire an army for a dollar a day?
The play shifts between real action and what seems to be the subconscious, of whom I am not sure. After reading this play I was left with more questions that answers. It did make me stop and think about life. Who is calling the shots, if anyone is at all. However, I did enjoy this play. It was as if I had stepped into the mind of Nick Flynn for a few acts. What he says the afterword stuck with me most:
“Sometimes it seems like this great game of musical chairs we’ve been playing in America is coming to an end, that the music is stopping more and more frequently, that there are fewer and fewer chairs.”
The American people are more concerned about winning than playing together. Alice just wants them to help each other find chairs instead of ripping it away before the others’ bottom touches the chair.
November 13, 2011
Alice Invents a Little Game and Alice Always Wins by Nick Flynn
Faber and Faber, Inc., New York, 2008.
Nick Flynn’s first play is different from what you would normally think of when you read a play. There are four characters, three acts with multiple short scenes in each, but only one setting and only 58 whole pages in the play. Still, the play is a captivating one, if not odd and confusing at times.
As stated, there are only four characters in the play, five if you include the voice on the intercom later in the story. First there is Alice, a middle-aged woman sitting outside an apartment building on a throne-like chair. Then there is Gideon, a man who is desperately trying to get into the building, but it is never clear if he actually lives there. Esra is the third character, a teenage girl who lives in the building but whose mother doesn’t seem to be home, which isn’t a surprise to her. The final character is Ivan, a business man who just decides to hang out in front of their building during the city-wide blackout that occurs during the play.
The characters interactions throughout the play flow seamlessly, as if they were all meant to be at that exact place at that time. Alice seems at first to live in the chair outside, but as the play goes on she is no longer outside but inside the building and on the tv, watching over their actions and almost controlling them like a puppeteer. Gideon never really says if he actually lives in the building or not, but it is implied that his girlfriend has kicked him out, as his belongings are thrown out of a window by the end of Act One. Esra is stuck outside because her mother is M.I.A. Ivan just continues to show up because he cannot go to his work or apartment because of the blackout, and during the course of the play makes an unlikely friendship with Esra.
While some scenes in the play made sense to me, others were just confusing. The scene that was most confusing to me was the third scene in Act Three, when Ivan, Esra, and Gideon stand in shadow while Alice and the Intercom speak. But though it was confusing, I actually liked that it didn’t make any sense to me. I felt like that was how it was supposed to be written. I also like how the song “Come Together” by The Beatles was played in the background as the Intercom spoke some of the lyrics of the song. To me, it was as if the song made the scene come together through all of its confusing parts.
So while the play itself was confusing to me, the reason I liked it was because it was confusing. It really made me think about who is controlling what we do and how we act. Is it just us, or is there an Alice-like being calling the shots and being the master puppeteer over our lives?
Faber and Faber, Inc., New York, 2008.
Nick Flynn’s first play is different from what you would normally think of when you read a play. There are four characters, three acts with multiple short scenes in each, but only one setting and only 58 whole pages in the play. Still, the play is a captivating one, if not odd and confusing at times.
As stated, there are only four characters in the play, five if you include the voice on the intercom later in the story. First there is Alice, a middle-aged woman sitting outside an apartment building on a throne-like chair. Then there is Gideon, a man who is desperately trying to get into the building, but it is never clear if he actually lives there. Esra is the third character, a teenage girl who lives in the building but whose mother doesn’t seem to be home, which isn’t a surprise to her. The final character is Ivan, a business man who just decides to hang out in front of their building during the city-wide blackout that occurs during the play.
The characters interactions throughout the play flow seamlessly, as if they were all meant to be at that exact place at that time. Alice seems at first to live in the chair outside, but as the play goes on she is no longer outside but inside the building and on the tv, watching over their actions and almost controlling them like a puppeteer. Gideon never really says if he actually lives in the building or not, but it is implied that his girlfriend has kicked him out, as his belongings are thrown out of a window by the end of Act One. Esra is stuck outside because her mother is M.I.A. Ivan just continues to show up because he cannot go to his work or apartment because of the blackout, and during the course of the play makes an unlikely friendship with Esra.
While some scenes in the play made sense to me, others were just confusing. The scene that was most confusing to me was the third scene in Act Three, when Ivan, Esra, and Gideon stand in shadow while Alice and the Intercom speak. But though it was confusing, I actually liked that it didn’t make any sense to me. I felt like that was how it was supposed to be written. I also like how the song “Come Together” by The Beatles was played in the background as the Intercom spoke some of the lyrics of the song. To me, it was as if the song made the scene come together through all of its confusing parts.
So while the play itself was confusing to me, the reason I liked it was because it was confusing. It really made me think about who is controlling what we do and how we act. Is it just us, or is there an Alice-like being calling the shots and being the master puppeteer over our lives?
October 5, 2011
“Alice Invents a Little Game and Alice Always Wins” A Play by Nick Flynn
Faber and Faber, Inc. 2008
It has been a while since I have read a script for a play, so I chose to read this one. I decided on Nick Flynn because I thought it would be cool to read one of his pieces and to have it signed by him when he comes to my school to speak.
The beginning of the play starts off in a New York City setting, which I related to and liked immediately because of being from New York. The story is set at the time of a blackout, so there is no power running throughout the entire city. Four characters exist throughout this entire performance: Alice, a mysterious thirty to fifty year old female; Gideon, a short tempered male in his mid-forties; a curious fifteen year old girl named Esra; and lastly Ivan, a lost, mid-thirty year old man.
The way Flynn introduced his characters is in a different manner than most. Some people include background information about the character before bringing them into the story. Here, Flynn brought in his characters right away, and I got to know each character just by reading the way they say things or what they like to talk about. Each character had a strange yet relatable personality, and there was something about each of them that I liked and disliked.
The style Flynn uses in his writing is also much different than the style of other writers, especially those of plays. I had no idea what was going on for the first half of the story. Why was the power out? Who is Alice? Who is Gideon? Why is Alice acting so strange towards someone she doesn’t even know? I knew the general idea, but it was all so mysterious that it made me want to read more and find out what was going to happen. Almost the entire time, Gideon was locked out of his apartment; few times when the power would come back on, he would gain access into the building through others who were either inside or had their keys. Esra could not find her mother because she had gone somewhere and was supposed to return, so the whole time I was wondering where she was and I will never know because that wasn’t revealed.
This play had me thinking and wondering about the storyline constantly, but in the end, everything seemed to make sense. Alice was mysterious and weird because all she wanted to do was sit outside and wait for the power, but in the process, merely taunt others who either locked themselves outside of their house like Gideon, or simply had nothing better to do, like Esra and Ivan. I might have to read this play a few more times to fully grasp the true meaning, but I thoroughly enjoyed the wittiness and creativity Nick Flynn intertwined within this story.
Faber and Faber, Inc. 2008
It has been a while since I have read a script for a play, so I chose to read this one. I decided on Nick Flynn because I thought it would be cool to read one of his pieces and to have it signed by him when he comes to my school to speak.
The beginning of the play starts off in a New York City setting, which I related to and liked immediately because of being from New York. The story is set at the time of a blackout, so there is no power running throughout the entire city. Four characters exist throughout this entire performance: Alice, a mysterious thirty to fifty year old female; Gideon, a short tempered male in his mid-forties; a curious fifteen year old girl named Esra; and lastly Ivan, a lost, mid-thirty year old man.
The way Flynn introduced his characters is in a different manner than most. Some people include background information about the character before bringing them into the story. Here, Flynn brought in his characters right away, and I got to know each character just by reading the way they say things or what they like to talk about. Each character had a strange yet relatable personality, and there was something about each of them that I liked and disliked.
The style Flynn uses in his writing is also much different than the style of other writers, especially those of plays. I had no idea what was going on for the first half of the story. Why was the power out? Who is Alice? Who is Gideon? Why is Alice acting so strange towards someone she doesn’t even know? I knew the general idea, but it was all so mysterious that it made me want to read more and find out what was going to happen. Almost the entire time, Gideon was locked out of his apartment; few times when the power would come back on, he would gain access into the building through others who were either inside or had their keys. Esra could not find her mother because she had gone somewhere and was supposed to return, so the whole time I was wondering where she was and I will never know because that wasn’t revealed.
This play had me thinking and wondering about the storyline constantly, but in the end, everything seemed to make sense. Alice was mysterious and weird because all she wanted to do was sit outside and wait for the power, but in the process, merely taunt others who either locked themselves outside of their house like Gideon, or simply had nothing better to do, like Esra and Ivan. I might have to read this play a few more times to fully grasp the true meaning, but I thoroughly enjoyed the wittiness and creativity Nick Flynn intertwined within this story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 1, 2018
Too wordy. Not sure what Flynn was trying to get his audience to realize
May 18, 2014
I waited far too long to read this lovely little play (for reasons mostly beyond my control). And now I have another life goal, to see it on the stage. Flynn's wry humor and characters are well worth dissecting. As well as the overall goals of such a play that attempts to look at the American crisis, with Alice acting as a reflection of such a society during chaos. A quick read, that will have you thinking deeply about our current world.
August 5, 2008
This is a totally biased review. Still, I like the characters, the vagueness of just who they are, the unpredictability of their situations, and the flood of media that surrounds them, and even inhabits them. It's very surreal and grounded in reality at the same time. More than the play, I enjoyed reading the Afterword,where Flynn elects to be a little more revealing than Pinter.
October 26, 2011
I can tell that I would like this a lot more when staged by a halfway decent director. There are so many things you could play with in the stage directions and character portrayals. In print it comes off as a little too PoMo for my taste--random shit happens, because it can. Two stars reading, probably a 3.5 onstage.
May 27, 2013
I know plays are for mostly intellectual people, but I had challenges liking this play. I just didn't get it, it was too metaphorical. What I like though is the idea of someone who would live outdoors and get tied to some other person. That would be soooo cool. :)
May 27, 2015
I wanted to like this more than I did. To be completely fair, I'm sure the experience would have been entirely different if I'd watched it instead of reading it, but there was a fair bit that I didn't "get" until reading Flynn's afterward.
July 4, 2008
I just picked this up a couple days ago when I heard Nick Flynn read. I think it's his first play. So far so good.
Want to read
August 20, 2008Mmmm, as a rule I don't like to read plays, but I love Nick Flynn so much, I'll probably pick this up one day.
April 22, 2015
Good quick surrealist piece in the vein of Waiting for Godot. Great since of urban confusion.
March 2, 2016
This vaguely reminds me of Beckett's Waiting for Godot
November 27, 2016
A strange meditation on capitalism, ownership and "outside." I recommend reading the afterword first for a bit more context (and the author's vision).
Read
August 31, 2008Hell yeah!
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews