A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney

by Lucas Hnath

Lucas Hnath’s darkly clever A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Life of Walt Disney centers on the reading, in a generic corporate conference room, of a stylized screenplay written by the great man himself, in the ultimate act of self-mythologizing. It’s being read by the people it’s about—Walt himself, his brother/henchman Roy, and Walt’s resentful daughter and her ex-jock husband. It's about Walt’s last days on earth. It's about a city he's going to build that's going to change the world. And it's about his brother. It's about everyone who loves him, and how sad they're going to be when he's gone. Can Walt control the future from the grave? Why does his daughter hate him so much? Were thousands of lemmings harmed in the making of a famous Disney nature film? Stay tuned…

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, School, Fiction

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having now read several of his plays, Hnath certainly has talent, but he seems to go out of his way to sabotage his own work. He has a rather interesting story to tell here, in deconstructing the history of Disney, and how the man himself was a rather disgusting creep, despite his legacy of sunshine and happiness. But the format in which he does it is dramatically inert, presenting it as a reading of a screenplay, so that it is just a bunch of actors sitting and reading a script, with the express instruction NOT to act out the scenes. That, plus the choppy staccato dialogue would seem to doom the play to failure as a performance.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like to read plays aloud and per the playwrights instructions. This was dizzying. Interesting, but dizzying.

[Willa · Rating 5 out of 5]

“…sorry I threw my Oscar at your head”

[Jason Pettus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just the title alone of this book sounded so promisingly insane when it popped up recently on Wowbrary.com's "New Arrivals at the Chicago Public Library" list, I checked it out merely to see if the resulting manuscript could hold up to the promise of that insane title. So surprise number one (a pleasant surprise) is that it's indeed actually a script, not a smartypants hipster novel like I was expecting, a stage play that premiered in 2013 at off-Broadway's Soho Rep; but surprise number two (not so pleasant) is that it's not very good, less an actual play with an actual plot and more like a 90-minute slam poem, where the rhythm and pattern of the mostly nonsensical dialogue is much more important than whether it makes any sense. It's not bad for what it's trying to be, which is why it's getting a middle-of-the-road score from me; but it's not that good an actual reading experience, which is why it's not scoring any higher.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's funny and poignant and a concept so crazy it has to work. That said, not sure it comments super originally on America/capitalism/celebrity etc.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting notion & story, but a script that would be difficult to do justice to with pace, & audiences may lose where they are. In a word: cruel.

[sam lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

tim and i read together !!! tim has nothing to say (he played a very good walt disney)

[IReadPlays · Rating 4 out of 5]

“All I wanted was to make the perfect city.”

This was a journeyyyy. Not gonna lie, my brain had to adjust to the stream of consciousness style writing that Hnath uses but once I got there I flew through this one in what felt like minutes...
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Watching Walt stumble through a recount of his final days through his own ~lens~ (ha ha) was appropriately haunting and unhinged. He steam rolls through the dialogue (narrating the stage directions and saying “cut to” when we transition locations, times and places) and the feelings of the other characters with zero remorse. Full agenda. Big yikes.
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I found myself reading and re-reading pages of dialogue, not wanting to miss the details hidden away so expertly. The additional characters interact with Walt through choppy sentences within each small “scene” in the screenplay. It’s cool to see how Hnath designs the interactions to carry multiple meanings, tenses and even outcomes…It’s also a lot to digest.
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I loved this and will be sitting with it for a while. I also googled a lot about his life after finishing it lol. Pick this one up and let me know what you think!

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@ireadplays on ig / @ireadplaysblog on tiktok

[Sean Kottke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just read the synopsis: Walt Disney writes a screenplay about himself, then enlists family to read it. I imagine in a performance there is great space for actors to create ironic space with body language and intonation that conflicts with the text Disney has written for them to read. The pace of the dialogue feels like Samuel Beckett, incomplete sentences, split across speakers. As Disney exercises control over his family to recount less than flattering truths and apocrypha from his life, I'm reminded of The Death of Artemio Cruz, where key moments in the life of a strongman, warts and all, play out in his dying moments. The repartee between Walt and Roy Disney also brings to mind The Propheteers, a marvelous satire of American capitalism.

[Sissy · Rating 1 out of 5]

My oquestion is why? What was the point? Is it to show a side of Walt the public didn’t see? Is it to showcase an egomaniac? What is this trying to say? Not that everything has to “say something,” but this play felt like it wanted to. It is incredibly confusing to read, which, for me, makes it incredibly hard to envision on stage. It reads like one long West Wing episode where no one gets to finish a sentence and no one is listening to each other. I just don’t understand why it was written.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hnath is our finest weirdo playwright who’s somehow on Broadway. (Not this one, though.) The most important person of the 20th century performs his own play about his death, rapid-fire, cross-cutting with three other characters but mostly his brother. I’d love to see a production of this, but reading it isn’t a bad substitute.

Also, all the negative reviews of this play are correct in content and wrong in effect.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is a fascinating play about the end of Disney’s life, with Disney, his brother Roy, daughter and son- in –law. This has to be a reading, with the actors ‘lines’ being a word or three words, or silence. It’s not how most of us think of Walt Disney, but it could be compelling theater.
Bought from Strand Books for ~$3.50, arr on 10/27/21

[Lana · Rating 4 out of 5]

a very enjoyable modern play about a bitter, ambitious, greedy man and how his creation & mind effect the relationships he had with people who care about him

i recommend reading this while watching the enacted play i found on youtube (directed by Zach Rettig, uploaded by Larry Spinner) —> https://youtu.be/m4AYoyHCHF0

[julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

tbh kinda hard read, curious how it sounds aloud. walt disney especially at the end of his life is JUICY ASS DRAMA that man literally thought he was god. got a little too scary and real about death at the end. i wonder if his frozen head ever will come back to life. i wonder what his frozen head would think of the state of the world. i think he'd be both pleased and disgusted.

[Hannah Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

An introspective of Walt during his highest moments, right before his death. A critical look on what happens when people get too much power and how the fallout leaves people hollow. Some laugh out loud moments that distract you from the bigger issues at hand

[Beeks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such an incredible story, it gripped me all the way through, however it was very disorienting to read, and I imagine very underwhelming to watch.

The content itself made up for the odd writing style, but maybe other people would find it easier to get behind than I did?

[Oz Kevink · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dug this one as opposed to Hillary. The distanced setup works to prod at Walt's ego and image as well as construct an immediately emotional frame. Similar to Hillary, though, I find it lacking an emotional and intellectual thesis (beyond the most obvious ones).

[Not Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Play.

Fantastic.

[Elizabeth Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would love to see this performed! Huge fan of Lucas Hnath's imagination, bravery, and risk taking.

[Marc · Rating 2 out of 5]

Saw 2 of his plays on Broadway and loved his writing but this is an earlier piece (2013) and didn't enjoy the style as much.

[Collin Kavanaugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kinda funny how when Disney wanted to create a city that he governed and controlled he was like “Oh yeah this is a good and normal thing that rational people want.”

[By The Cover · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm

That felt odd

[Kevin Eggleston · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tad show-offy, like a high wire act. But original & brilliant. Doesn’t fall.

[Becky Jo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hi, this is terribly written for one of my absolute favorite playwrights

[Chambers Stevens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lucas Hnath is one of my favorite playwrights.
But I have never understood the appeal of this play.

[Breanne]

love to read something that recognizes reedy creek as being as uncanny as i felt it was when it was first introduced to me during my c*ll*g* pr*gr*m training

[zz · Rating 2 out of 5]

bro read the wikipedia page for walt disney and called it a day

[Daniel Beimford]

Not a particularly subtle take on Disney's legacy lol. The outright nastiness and cynicism of the play gives it some teeth, admittedly. "Cut to" is a clever device.

[Phillip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of the three Hnath plays I've read, this has been my least favorite. Structurally, this is the most experimental, being presented as a read through of a screenplay. But even then most of the dialogue is just fragments, rather than full sentences. Yes, it's generally comprehensible, but I don't find that approach super rewarding.

Hnath also has a pretty clearly negative view of Walt Disney (which, to be fair, I generally share). He takes some of the worst elements some biographers have assigned to Disney's character and runs with them, even presenting him as knowing and having authorized the animal cruelty in the film White Wilderness.
https://youtu.be/iFdR0_XO0C8

[Tom Robson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compelling read for those interested in Disney. Not sure how theatrically potent it would be, but I'm intrigued enough to want to see it.