Thirteen by Shanley: Collected Plays, Vol. 1 Book

Happy to have finally finished this.

I have to go with a 3/5 because though there are a few plays in this collection I think are brilliant, others I did not connect with or like as much... at least on the page...

I'm just going to go down the line and record what I can for future reference.

I am not currently prepared to talk about "Danny and the Deep Blue Sea." I am a little biased because I watched the final scene of it being workshopped by my classmates several times and had a difficult time disassociating it from their work.

The only miniplay in the subcollection "Welcome to the Moon and other plays" that I almost liked was "Welcome to the Moon" itself. Some seemed too short and simple ("The Red Coat"), others too heavily symbolic (ahem "Down and Out" and the rest) for my taste.

I love "Savage in Limbo." I think it's brilliant. Having seen it worked through by my classmates does not negatively affect my affection for it, which is the case with "Danny." It is complex and detailed and funny and there are no clear answers. I do not particularly care for the ending but I like most other things about it.

My feelings are just slightly less strong for "Women of Manhattan." Three women in three different phases of A Relationship. Interesting, good.

"the dreamer examines his pillow" freaked me the hell out, which is maybe why it is so great. It also spurred a long, on-going conversation with myself about transparency and space, why people hurt each other, women and men and being trapped, and cycles, and generations, and on and on. And it scared me.

"Italian American Reconciliation" was fine, less interesting to me but I liked the format.

"The Big Funk" and "Beggars in the House of Plenty" brought back the heavy symbolism from the miniplays, and I did not really care for either. I'd like to look at them again in several years to see if I get more out of them in the future. I will say "Beggars" felt very dangerous to me, a little nightmare-ish.

So my opinion of John Patrick Shanley isn't set yet. Some of his work I think is fantastic, and some I just don't like.