The Designated Mourner (Acting Edition for Theater Productions)

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.