A Perfect Ganesh

by Terrence McNally

Book by Terrence McNally

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Terrence McNally was an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. Described as "the bard of American theater" and "one of the greatest contemporary playwrights the theater world has yet produced," McNally was the recipient of five Tony Awards. He won the Tony Award for Best Play for Love! Valour!

Reviews

[Rach · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is my favorite play by McNally. Wow just wow. So haunting and raw and emotional. McNally does such a good job with human emotion and relationships and the reality of it.

[Charlie Herndon]

This was a weirdddd one. I didn’t not dig it, though.

[ML Character · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this might be so far my favorite of the early-90s drama slush pile. I am seriously, really asking: why are all the plays I read from the 1980s-90s about distasteful, *designed to be kind of terrible* white people? What a weird decade of all the plays being about terrible white people? Sometimes with one not-white terrible person. But like... wow. Nothing but upper middle class problems and peccadilloes all day every day. So anyway- this one I think might be my favorite of them? I really think McNally has nailed the aesthetics of surreal interlocutors and intertwining scenes (Mary Kathryn Nagle's Manahatta I'd say is the other one up there in dexterity with this device). And these terrible people, despite being really terrible white straight ladies on a really terrible vacation, they do have enough that you do kind of care about them by the end. Unlike most (looking at you, Jon Robin Baitz, Wallace Shawn...). As I've said in another review- maybe Baitz?- it's kind of perversely appropriate for a vast swathe of "straight" theatre to be about upper middle class white people-- that is for sure theatre showing itself to itself-- but also soo damn boring. sheesh.

[Ena · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tackling worthwhile issues including racism, homophobia, classism, sexism, and relationship issues, but the format undercuts the message. A play is insufficient to do what the author is trying to achieve.
The setting is very early two thousands/finding yourself in India, losing yourself in their culture to achieve enlightenment.
Though I like the idea of Ganesh as a character, I don’t think the execution works. It just comes off bland.
The play is slow. There is no growth throughout the play in either woman or any of the interchangeable men.
The ending is heartwarming but that’s not enough.

[Stace🐼 · Rating 3 out of 5]

6.8/10. I think i need to wait until my frontal lobe develops to maybe get over the uncomfortable irritable feeling i’m with when i see slurs in plays written by white people— let alone white men. Overall towards the end i began to resonate a bit with katherine i think it is(whoever lost their son). Will be watching the play soon.

[Kevin Lo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would love to see this staged.

[Brian McCann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than I remember. Such underlying sadness throughout. Great roles. I wonder if it will ever be done these days, post-Pandemic, of course

[Kathleen]

Read for acting class. Play was good, but no workable monologue for me.

[J Dubyuh]

I think McNally had a vast, beautiful heart

[Madeline Field · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read for class

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

More than anything, A Perfect Ganesh reminds me of those books and movies about upper-middle-class white women who go off to a foreign land to find themselves – mostly because that’s pretty much the plot. A Perfect Ganesh is a bit deeper than some of its compatriots, but I honestly feel like it’s considered ‘more serious’ (it was a Pulitzer nominee) because a man wrote it.

But maybe I’m just overly cynical or missed some key detail or theme of the play. Quasi-recommended.

[Joshlynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh my God. A beautiful drama and piece of art. The themes are more of the same from McNally: sex, racism, homosexuality, and profanity galore. But the script brilliantly takes these trod-upon concepts and rewires them into something totally original. Reading this script sends this theater kid's brain spinning with stage possibilities.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to play Katherin.