The Designated Mourner: A Play

Woven out of three monologues in what one reviewer called "a triple sonata of oppression and incomprehension" (The Sunday Times, London), Wallace Shawn's new play is a masterful drama about the self, politics, and the pursuit of aesthetic subtleties in brutal times. The three characters are the eponymous designated mourner, Jack; his wife, Judy; and Judy's erudite father, Howard. Despite a passionate bond with her father, Judy is drawn to 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.

Other works by Wallace Shawn are A Thought in Three Parts, Our Late Night, Marie and Bruce, My Dinner With Andre (co-written with Andre Gregory), Aunt Dan and Lemon, and The Fever.