Crowtet 1: A Murder of Crows & the Hyacinth Macaw

Rating:
Summary: Read these plays! (If you have a theatre, produce them!)
Review: Mac Wellman is perhaps our greatest living playwright.

He is a poet and a verbal acrobat. The language sweeps over you and leaves you reeling to catch up--and you want to. He is a social critic and a cynic on one hand, but he has a great big heart and injects this warmth just when the characters are at risk of leaving you cold. A perfect balance.

These two plays are some of his best. The Hyacinth Macaw, in particular, is beautiful and original and moving and--perhaps above all--funny!

They are not necessarily easy reads. Mr. Wellman is an intellectual and makes no attempt to hide it. You may need to keep a dictionary handy (not an ordinary dictionary, the OED would be better). But the plays are more than worth the effort. Rich, real characters in often bizarre and unreal settings. This is Anti-Naturalism.

Highly, highly recommended. Mr. Wellman is genius underappreciated.