Scuba Duba.

by Bruce Jay Friedman

In Richard Watts Jr.'s words: " concerns the misadventures of an American in the South of France. His wife has just gone off with a black skin-diver, and he is trying to be very fair and non-racial about it, although with indifferent results. His next-door neighbor is a bikini-clad American girl, who drops in chiefly to tell him pointless stories. She is also willing to comfort him, but his main interest is dramatizing himself as interchangeably forgiving and vengeful. The other visitors include a thief and a policeman who, being French, patriotically takes the French thief's side against him. The fatuous psychiatrist shows up, as does an impossible American who thinks he understands other races. The wife and her two black friends arrive, one the skin-diver who puts on a bogusly genial kind of minstrel act, the other a romantic type who makes love poetically. They are a well-assorted and, on the whole, an amusing set of people." And, in fact, perhaps the most singular, hilarious and ingratiating group of characters to be encountered on the American stage since made history of a similar kind in its own time.

Genres: Theatre, Plays

102 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

American comic author whose dark, mocking humour and social criticism was directed at the concerns and behaviour of American Jews.

After graduating from the University of Missouri in 1951 with a B.A. in journalism and serving in the U.S. Air Force for two years, Friedman worked in publishing for several years before achieving success with his first novel, Stern (1962). The title character is a luckless descendent of the biblical Job, unable to assimilate into mainstream American life. Virtually all of Friedman's works are a variation on this theme; most of his characters are Jewish by birth, but they feel alienated from both Jewish and American culture. His works are also noted for focusing on absurd characters and situations.
-Encyclopædia Britannica

Reviews

[Kelly Dienes · Rating 2 out of 5]

i bought this at a bar / consignment store at a friend’s recommendation, cuz he’d heard of this playwright and how he sort of pioneered the concept of black comedy. and i thought the cover and title were real funny

well bits were funny, and i understand this is supposed to be a black comedy satire, but it was mostly kind of uncomfortable, and after understanding the caricature on the cover, i’m extremely not about it and it’s not funny anymore :/ oh well

[Brian McCann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Possibly the worst play I’ve ever read.

[Brandon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Easily one of the worst plays I've ever read. I can't believe this was ever produced, and I can't believe it was subsequently published.

[Evelyn Lu · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story about an interracial affair between a American woman and two French men, which is a little boring and banal...containing some descriptions of racial stereotypes.