Naomi Wallace

I've spent quite a bit of time trying to decide what I think of these plays. I've decided that if it takes that much time to decide, I should just accept ambivalence and get over it. My life is too short to pursue certainty. Anyway, the plays are pure 90s - the style is non-linear, the characters are mostly malevolent, and the situations are utterly disturbing. Do I like them? Some of them. Others...not so much. I think most of them would be stageable only because she specifies a minimalist, non-realistic set, because today's theatre seems to go either for total minimalism or total realism, no in between, and multiple locations are of questionable acceptability. Still, I can see why these plays won prizes, but if you are of a depressive nature, you might want to make sure you have a big bottle of Prozac handy while you read them, because they are definitely downers.… (meer)