Rocket Man

by Steven Dietz

Book by Steven Dietz

Genres: Plays

72 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2003

About the author

Steven Dietz is an American playwright whose work is largely performed regionally, i.e. outside of New York City. Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, Dietz graduated in 1980 with a Theater degree from the University of Northern Colorado. He is the recipient of the PEN U.S.A. Award in Drama (for Lonely Planet); the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award (Fiction and Still Life With Iris); and the Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Award (The Rememberer). Halcyon Days is one of his other successful plays. Many of his plays are very political. He lives in Seattle.

Reviews

[evan]

I was wondering where this play was going as I was reading it and I was intrigued, but the ending just ruined it for me. This play needs an ending to make sense of its journey, and in the end, I found out that the journey was not interesting or worthwhile because it didn't actually take me anywhere. I look forward to seeing it performed and seeing if maybe I missed something.

[Douglas Cosby]

An okay play, with time juxtaposition, but no clear point. Donny wants to find a universe where he made different decisions, and in Act 2 everything is "kind of" opposite -- people get younger, marriages end with a honeymoon, etc. But not everything is backwards, and there seems to be no main thread.

[Steven]

Almost an excellent play of mud-life crisis and suicide somewhat spoiled by a magic realist homage to Time's Arrow.