John (TCG Edition) - Hardcover

Baker, Annie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1559365285 ISBN 13: 9781559365284

Publisher: Theatre Communications Group, 2016

Synopsis

"Annie Baker's John is so good on so many levels that it casts a unique and brilliant light . . . By not rushing things--by letting the characters develop as gradually and inevitably as rain or snowfall--Baker returns us to the naturalistic but soulful theatre that many of her contemporaries and near-contemporaries have disavowed in their rush to be "postmodern."--The New Yorker

"John, like any great play, raises a lot of questions-not just about the human experience, but also about the state of contemporary theater, it doesn't provide many answers; it is not the playwright's responsibility to do so... In John she co-opts the viewer for her own aesthetic use, heightening the tension onstage and deepening the quiet relationships between her characters. Through John, she displays an understanding that the audience is part of the theatrical experience, an inevitability as certain as a Chekhovian gun."--Slate

The week after Thanksgiving. A bed & breakfast in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. A cheerful innkeeper. A young couple struggling to stay together. Thousands of inanimate objects, watching.

The description by the playwright of the setting is simple but Annie Baker's compelling new work is revolutionary in theme and structure and challenges the boundaries of what theatre can be. A kind of magical super-realism permeates throughout this quietly evolving tale with both the actors and the audience fully vested together in a mesmerizing exploration of the frailty and loneliness of human experience.

Annie Baker's works include The Flick (Pulitzer Prize), The Aliens (Obie Award), Body Awareness, Circle Mirror Transformation (Obie Award), Nocturama, and an adaptation of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. Her work has been produced at more than a hundred theaters in the United States and in more than a dozen countries. Recent honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Steinberg Playwright Award and a New York Drama Critics Circle Award.

About this title

About the Author

Annie Baker's other plays include The Flick (Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Hull-Warriner Award, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Obie Award), Circle Mirror Transformation (Obie Award), The Aliens (Obie Award), and an adaptation of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. Her plays have been produced at more than 150 theaters throughout the U.S. and in more than a dozen countries. Recent honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Steinberg Playwright Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, and the 2015/16 Cullman Fellowship at the New York Public Library. She is a resident playwright at Signature Theatre.

About this edition

• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1559365285
• ISBN 13: 9781559365284
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 160