Gum and The Mother of Modern Censorship
by Karen Hartman

Name: Gum and The Mother of Modern Censorship
Brand: Karen Hartman
SKU: 9780822219279
Rating: 3.94 (15 reviews)

Off-Broadway

Gum and The Mother of Modern Censorship Cover

Gum and The Mother of Modern Censorship Book Cover — Gum and The Mother of Modern Censorship Cover

Highlights

Female

Male

One Act 75 mins Present Day Unit Set/Multiple Settings Comedy

Synopsis

THE STORIES: Gum .

In this violent fairy tale, two cloistered sisters discover new appetites.

GUM takes place in a fictional fundamentalist country, inspired by a true scandal in which young Egyptian women were rumored to have had sex with boys in cars.

The explanation?

Tainted gum, part of a foreign plot to undermine the virtue of traditional girls.

Too outrageous to be real, too terrifying to be anything else, GUM depicts the glee and the horror of sexual awakening in a fiercely restrictive culture.

Explicit sexual content.

(2 men, 3 women.) The Mother of Modern Censorship .

An office comedy behind veils, THE MOTHER OF MODERN CENSORSHIP tells the story of a power grab in a world where purity is the ticket to success.

The setting is the Music Censorship Headquarters of a fictional fundamentalist country.

In the face of ever-shifting rules and restrictions, the chief music censor and her loyal assistant must prove they are worthy to screen out the smut.

(1 man, 3 women.)

Press Reviews

"Karen Hartman's duo of plays about women in restrictive Islamic societies provides an intriguing exploration into a milieu rarely seen on American stages. The first, THE MOTHER OF MODERN CENSORSHIP is a small, clever political comedy in the vein of Vaclav Havel's earlier plays. The second, longer and richer GUM, is a tragedy with sexual politics and poetry in equal measure. These are intelligent, sophisticated works, and they clearly establish Hartman as a playwright to watch.“ —Variety. ”Karen Hartman's play GUM is both hilarious and disturbing. It, and its companion, THE MOTHER OF MODERN CENSORSHIP, are superb satires and also compassionate dramatic visions. Karen Hartman is fulfilling her extraordinary early promise."
— Harold Bloom. Included in Gum and The Mother of Modern Censorship