<DIV><p>&ldquo;The play nicely combines Pinterian menace with caustic political commentary.&rdquo; &ndash;<I>Time</I></p> <p>&ldquo;Acerbic, elusive, poetic and chilling, the writing is demanding in a rarefied manner. Its implications are both affecting and disturbing.&rdquo; &ndash;<I>Los Angeles Times</I></p> <p>&ldquo;In his exquisitely written dramatic lament for the decline of high culture. . . . [Shawn] offers a definition of the self that should rattle the defenses of intellectual snobs everywhere.&rdquo; &ndash;<I>The New York Times</I></p> <p>Writer and performer Wallace Shawn&rsquo;s landmark 1996 play features three characters&mdash;a respected poet, his daughter, and her English-professor husband&mdash;suspected of subversion in a world where culture has come under the control of the ruling oligarchy. Told through three interwoven monologues, the Orwellian political story is recounted alongside the visceral dissolution of a marriage. The play debuted at the Royal National Theatre in London, in a production directed by David Hare, who also directed the film version, starring Mike Nichols and Miranda Richardson. The play&rsquo;s subsequent New York premiere was staged in a long-abandoned men&rsquo;s club in lower Manhattan, directed by Shawn&rsquo;s longtime collaborator André Gregory.</p> <p><B>Wallace Shawn</B> is the author of <I>Our Late Night</I> (OBIE Award for Best Play), <I>Marie and Bruce</I>, <I>Aunt Dan and Lemon</I>, <I>The Fever</I>, and the screenplay for <I>My Dinner with André</I>. His most recent play, <I>Grasses of a Thousand Colors</I>, premiered last year in London.</p></DIV>