The Designated Mourner
by Wallace Shawn

Name: The Designated Mourner
Brand: Wallace Shawn
SKU: 9780822218487
Rating: 3.77 (435 reviews)

The Designated Mourner Book Cover — The Designated Mourner Cover

Highlights

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120 minsBare Stage/Simple SetAmerican

What readers are saying

Readers have mixed feelings about the play, finding it to be a challenging and heavy experience. While some appreciate the depth of its themes regarding art, dissent, and the human condition, others feel overwhelmed by its dense structure and abstract dialogue. Many agree that it may work better as a performance rather than in written form, though its literary qualities are acknowledged.

Thought-provoking themesBeautifully writtenFlashes of brillianceCerebral and interestingDense and complicated structureHeavy and depressing toneNot engaging in written form

Synopsis

THE STORY: THE DESIGNATED MOURNER tells the story of three people: Howard, a poet, essayist and intellectual who comes from a privileged background but who nonetheless has been at odds for many decades with the right-wing regime that rules his coun

ThemesFathers and daughters--Drama Man-woman relationships Man-woman relationships--Drama PS3569.H387 D47 2002

Press Reviews

"THE DESIGNATED MOURNER is highly unconventional, much concerned with matters of politics, culture, and human significance…There is quality in Shawn's writing—imaginative verve, quiet intensity, a sort of Puritan sensitivity or a blend of them all—that reduces objections to a quibble…This is a playwright who does not just tell you what it is like to be arrested at night by goons or to fall morally apart and become an aimless yet weirdly contented ghost yourself. He has the originality to make you feel it.“ —The Times (London). ”Strange names and even stranger play, but one which worms its way into the consciousness long after the performance is over…unsettling, ominous…the fastidiousness of the language and the detached tone in which horrific events are recounted exert a hypnotic power.“ —Time Out New York. ”A fascinating play with beautiful passages of writing…"
— Variety