A Gradual Staccato or Emptiness, and Other Plays
by Robert Reichardt (9781438990347)

FIVE PLAYS BY ROBERT REICHARDT Included in this collection are five fascinating plays by the avant-garde playwright, Robert Reichardt. Each is unique in its subject matter, and dazzling in originality. A GRADUAL STACCATO OR EMPTINESS concerns the trauma of being a genius -- a child prodigy -- in an ignorant world inhabited by lesser beings. Nobody noticed (or could even imagine) that someone as profoundly gifted as Erick Uselmann might be in trouble -- and it wasn't just about Hiroshima. What do words and literacy mean to mankind? Everything, it turns out -- they make us human. In the comedy, A TOTALLY IMPRACTICAL MAN, a former illiterate (Kurt Mauer) is fought over by two attractive women -- who definitely aren't what they seem. They both promise him a mysterious "Universal Alphabet Machine" which will revolutionize the entire world by eliminating illiteracy, and poverty. All he has to do is follow one of them. RICHARD PLANTAGENT (TWICE), or the Peasant's Revolt of 1381, is a play based on the turbulent life of King Richard II. The drama combines what we know of the historical man with someone made more accessible through the imagination. Can an ugly, middle-aged man and a young beautiful girl co-exist on a remote island the size of a boxing ring? This is the premise of LOVE ON A GRIEF ISLAND, as Sam and Claudia struggle to survive after a plane crash in the South Pacific. In the short work, THE FABRIC OF SOCIETY, Gaston Laclede, a monarchist father, and Luc, his radical son, are forced to make a hard decision in Paris during the French Revolution.

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