August Wilson: Three Plays
by August Wilson
List Price:
Our Price: $25.64
You Save: $4.31 (14%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $11.00 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: August WilsonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1991-06-03
ISBN: 0822936666
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
Book Reviews of August Wilson: Three Plays
Book Review: I'm Mildly Disappointed
Summary: 4 Stars
August Wilson is hot these days in the theater communities near me. I've seen two of the plays in this book - Joe Turner & Fences - in the last six months, performed well and enthusiastically received by predominantly white audiences. I enjoyed both evenings. Oddly, my wife, who is the live theater buff in the family, thought both plays were too wordy and static. I found myself defending a theater of words, the theater inherited from O'Neil, Ibsen, Shakespeare. My disappointment was not a matter of stage-craft, but of content.
Are Wilson's plays clever? Yes, but no more clever than films like Barbershop.
Do Wilson's play capture the savor of African-American dialect and humor? Yes, but in a stereotypical fashion that adds little to the legacy of such humor, starting from Joel Chandler Harris. Frankly I kept hoping he'd stretch more, surpass the condescending Amos 'n Andy exaggerations that play so amusingly on stage.
Do Wilson's plays have profundity? Hmm... That's the main question, isn't it? Critics write about Wilson's vision of the tragedy of the Southern Blacks abandoning their agrarian world to migrate north into an industrial/urban world where they were unwelcome and spiritually lost. In other words, Wilson could be seen as another Wendell Berry, of a different complexion but equally mystico-sentimental, or as proof of William Faulkner's racialist faith in the innate rightness of staying in your place, and true to 'what you are.' Well, well, of course, for us relativistic post-modernists, all profundities are created equal.... but some are more equal than others. I don't find Wilson's plays as deep as the author apparently did, but they're a welcome change from the assaultive triteness of David Mamet and Co.
United States Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in United States Books
Their Place on the Stage: Black Women Playwrights in Americaby Eliz Brown Guillory
Praeger; Published: 1990-03-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $23.95
PLAYS FOR AN IMAGINARY THEATERby Judson L. Jerome
University of Illinois Press; Published: 1970-05-01; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Differences in the Darkby Michael T. Gilmore
Columbia University Press; Published: 1998-07-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.49
Price in other shops:
Acting Gayby John M. Clum
Columbia University Press; Published: 1992-04-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $60.66
Price in other shops:
Absurd, Black and Comic Sketches (Drama)by Peter Joucla
Nelson Thornes Ltd; Published: 1991-03; Paperback; Book
The Sorrows of Frederick and Holy Ghosts (An Original harvest book ; HB 355)by Romulus Linney
Harcourt; Published: 1977-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $50.31
The Glass Menagerie (Modern Classics (Penguin))by Tennessee Williams
Penguin Books; Published: 2009-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.06
Price in other shops:
An Enemy of the People (Penguin Plays)by Henrik Ibsen
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1977-11-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
Five O'Clock Angelby Tennessee Williams
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1991-08-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.94
Shakespeareby Michael Wood
Basic Books; Published: 2004-10-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Long Day's Journey into Nightby Eugene O'Neill
Yale University Press; Published: 2002-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.75
Price in other shops:
Death of a Salesman (Penguin Plays)by Arthur Miller
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1998-10-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.97
Price in other shops:
The Narrow Road to the Interior: Poemsby Kimiko Hahn
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2008-02-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.59
Price in other shops:
Songs My Mother Taught Me: Stories, Plays, and Memoirby Wakako Yamauchi
The Feminist Press at CUNY; Published: 1994-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.45
Price in other shops:
King Hedley IIby August Wilson
Theatre Communications Group; Published: 2005-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.15
Price in other shops:
The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singerby Isaac Bashevis Singer
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 1983-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.86
Price in other shops:
Two Trains Runningby August Wilson
Plume; Published: 1993-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.45
Price in other shops:
Gem of the Oceanby August Wilson
Theatre Communications Group; Published: 2006-07-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.61
Price in other shops:
Radio Golfby August Wilson
Theatre Communications Group; Published: 2008-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.88
Price in other shops:
The Piano Lessonby August Wilson
Plume; Published: 1990-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.89
Price in other shops: