Still Life
by Emily Mann

Name: Still Life
Brand: Emily Mann
SKU: 9780822210818
Rating: 3.33 (42 reviews)

Still Life Book Cover — Still Life Cover

Highlights

Small Cast

Female

Male

90 minsBare Stage/Simple SetAmerican

Awards & Recognition

Obie Award

Winner of the Obie Award.

What readers are saying

Readers have mixed feelings about the play, finding it lacking in character interactions and focus. Some appreciate the playwright's intent and storytelling style, while others feel the documentary approach leads to a disjointed experience.

Powerful writing styleInteresting documentary approachLack of character interactionUnfocused narrative

Synopsis

Shaped by the author from conversations with the people whose experience she sets forth, the play explores the way that Vietnam has affected three lives: a Marine veteran, his estranged wife and his mistress.

Seated at a table, with slides used occasionally to amplify and illustrate their comments, the three tell their various stories.

The man confesses that he killed a Vietnamese family in cold blood and, carrying the seeds of violence with him, returned home to brutalize his pregnant wife.

The wife, disillusioned and unhappy, wants to ignore the terrors that haunt her husband, believing that in time the awful memories will fade, while the mistress, an angry feminist, blames the man's destructiveness on the forces that conditioned him before he went to Vietnam.

In the end, these three become a metaphor for the nation as a whole—still trying to understand, and overcome, the lingering trauma that is the bitter legacy of the Vietnam experience.

ThemesAmerican Drama

Press Reviews

"Winner of the Obie Award for Best Production. A compelling, harrowing, and ultimately moving documentary drama, “created from the words of real persons,” which explores and illuminates the nightmare of Vietnam and its cruel aftermath. “…a theatrical experience that is often shattering.” —The Hollywood Reporter. “…a gripping drama, strikingly and effectively staged, compelling and moving.” —Chicago Sun-Times. “…a searing account of the lingering aftermath of the Vietnam War."
— The New York Times