The designated mourner
By: Wallace Shawn.
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 1996
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 103
Subjects: Man-woman relationships -- Drama; Fathers and daughters -- Drama
Description: Woven out of three monologues in what one reviewer called "a triple sonata of oppression and incomprehension" (The Sunday Times), Wallace Shawn's new play, The Designated Mourner, is a masterful drama about the pursuit of aesthetic subtleties in brutal times. The three characters include the eponymous designated mourner, Jack; his wife, Judy; and his erudite father-in-law, Howard. Although Judy is tied to her famous father by a passionate bond, she is nonetheless drawn toward Jack, whose taste in cultural forms follows a disturbing path. When Jack abandons both Judy and Howard, he continues his riveting societal free-fall into a world of gleeful savagery.