Constance Congdon

A political play with a twist - that then twists - and twists again. Who is working for whom? Who is doing the trapping and who is the trapped? It's all just a set up? Or is it real? Who knows? By the end of the work, you probably won't be sure. It's an interesting ride, a look at political spin, and how the system manipulates and exploits people for its own ends, usually to score political points. Even in the service of a good cause, the insider maneuvering can become very distasteful. Very well written, as usual, and a bit of surprise to actually have a linear plot from an author that utilizes all sorts of time and space warps in her best known works. Still, even with a linear plot, there is plenty here to keep track of. A non-linear plot might have made it totally impossible.… (mehr)

This play looks at the impact of Alzheimers, but with a twist. The story is narrated by aliens trying to make sense of this culture, and watching the shenanigans going on with amusement. A three generation story, where a young woman moves back with her parents, bringing along her teenage son, who is a suitably surly juvenile for the plot. The characters are close enough to normal that you might think at first they are your neighbors (or you?), but there is just enough off center to rock that conviction. The ending is wonderfully bizarre; a truly dark comedic turn.… (mehr)

A surreal look at the bomb. Oppenheimer wanders through the story which begins with the A-test in the desert, and ends in the present. Is Oppenheimer a ghost? That's never clear, but all the characters interact across time and space in non-linear ways, so it's difficult to be sure who is who or where they are. It isn't so much a play about the bomb as it is a play about interactions, but the interactions are difficult to follow in the non-linear structure. This is not unusual for this writer; in fact, it's rather a standard thing that one comes to expect. Quirky and likeable, though confusing.… (mehr)

A fast-moving surreal look at two friends trying to survive the New York dating scene, disappointment, and AIDS. Characters come and go on stage as they do in life, and the dialogue moves along with two witty main characters and a number of straight men who never quite seem to understand what's going on around them. The despair is evident in every line, and the failure to resolve any of the problems that are encountered is actually rather true to life, even when the settings and characters depart from the ordinary.… (mehr)