Haunted Lives: Three Short Plays

by John Pielmeier

Presents three plays by the American playwright and author of "Agnes of God."

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, the Goodreads description of this collection of creepy short plays is woefully inadequate. There are three , “A Witch’s Brew”, “A Ghost Story”, and “A Gothic Tale”.

While I enjoyed reading these creepy plays, they really don’t lend themselves to being produced on stage. Especially the Gothic Tale. In that one the story takes place in a mostly glass third story room of a tropical island mansion. Aaaand a lot of the glass gets broken. The man imprisoned there has to go from being healthy to being sick and emaciated . That could happen on film, but in a short plays, I’m not seeing a good way to do it.

The stories are also dated, which is okay, as long as you define the era clearly. So, if you like scary or horror stories, I can recommend these as fun to read. Just don’t plan on actually staging them.

Your mileage may vary.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

HAUNTED implies ghosts, and yet, the presence of ghosts is arguable in 2 of the 3 short plays contained within. Beyond "ghosts," there's a little splatterfest, sort of preceding the contemporary trend in the horror genre of torture porn. And yet, even with the sort of graphic violence of these, most of it is hidden in shadows, just offstage, or simply suggested. Overall, these are not that scary and not really all that good.