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The Play’s the ThingBy Stephen PeithmanGetting It TogetherPlay anthologies to inspire greater understandingThe anthology format is at its best when it introducesus — or reintroduces us — to a talent whose work isnot as well known as it should be. The plays of ArthurSchnitzler (1862–1931) were often controversial in his lifetimebecause of their frank views of sexuality, as in Anatol (1893),a play in seven acts, revolving around a playboy and his conquests,and La Ronde (here translated as Roundelay), a stringof vignettes that links a series of lovers. Both works are includedin Eight Plays by Arthur Schnitzler, translated from theGerman by William L. Cunningham and David Palmer. Alsoincluded are the less familiar Professor Bernhardi, Interlude,The Green Cockatoo, The Last Masks, Countess Mitzi and Hour ofRealizing. Schnitzler’s fine ear for dialog and his acute psychologicalobservation are greatly enhanced by these sensitive,theatrical translations. La Ronde/Roundelay, in particular, criesout for more productions than it currently receives. [ISBN 0-8101-1933-1, $24.95, Northwestern University Press]Vaclav Havel: The Short Plays offers eight brief works bythe Czech writer and politician (translated by Carol Rocamora),including the acclaimed trilogy The Vanek Plays, as well as fourone-acts never before translated into English or producedin the West. Havel’s acclaimed plays about the oppressiveCommunist rule of his native Czechoslovakia caused him tobe imprisoned many times, and it is this that is often remembered,more than the plays themselves. This anthology allowsthe reader to get a better sense of Havel’s gifts — particularlyhis darkly comic view of life under totalitarianism. [ISBN 1-5752-5531-6, $19.95, Smith & Kraus]The short-play format brings with it many challenges— in particular, creating a strong dramatic or comic effect in arelatively short period of time without the luxury of a lengthyplot or character arc. That’s clear in two new anthologies fromApplause Books, which also provide a snapshot of the evolvingstyles and subject matter of current American drama.The first, The Best American Short Plays 2001–2002,includes David Ives’ Lives of the Saints; Will Scheffer’s Alien Boy;Joyce Carol Oates’ When I Was a Little Girl and My Mother Didn’tWant Me; Christopher Durang’s Kitty the Waitress; Donna deMatteo’s Her Name Is Kathy; Beth Henley’s Sisters of the WinterMadrigal; Arthur Kopit’s Chad Curtis, Lost Again (Episode 14);Leslie Ayvazian’s Deaf Day; Paul Kuritz’ The Yellow Wallpaper;Neena Beber’s In Bed with Kafka/Kafka in My Bed; and LauraShaine Cunningham’s El Depresso Espresso. [ISBN 1-55783-705-8, $16.95, Applause Books]The second, The Best American Short Plays 2002–2003,includes The Beauty Inside by Catherine Filloux; The D TrainDoesn’t Stop Here Anymore by Laura Shaine Cunningham;Brown by Cherie Vogelstein; and everybody else by ScottOrgan; Two Monologues for One Actor and a Dog by MurraySchisgal; Reunions by Billy Aronson; Captain Abalone by AdamKraar; Classyass by Caleen Sinnette Jennings; Changing of theGuard by Amy Staats; Hermaphrodite by Annie G.; Sada byBruce Levy; 5:15 Greyhound by Le Wilhelm; and My Red Hand,My Black Hand by Dael Orlandersmith. [ISBN 1-55783-720-1,$16.95, Applause Books]For 20 years, the Theodore Ward Prize for African AmericanPlaywriting has provided a showcase for both emerging andestablished black playwrights and their efforts in shaping contemporarytheatre. Now, a new anthology, Best Black Plays,presents three winners of that prize. Leslie Lee’s SundownNames and Night-Gone Things is set in 1939, when timesare hard, and those who fear that they cannot bury theirloved ones properly find themselves making questionabledeals with a black-owned-and-operated insurance office onChicago’s South Side. Mark Clayton Southers’ Ma Noah is agritty — and often funny — play about single motherhood,drug dealing, dysfunctional families and exotic dancing. KimEuell’s The Diva Daughters DuPree is an absorbing dramaticcomedy about class, generational conflict, gender roles andreverse racism, as three African American sisters reunitein their family home in a white suburb, 10 years after theirparents’ death in an accident. [ISBN 0-8101-2390-8, $24.95,Northwestern University Press]Indispensible is the only word to describe the “Best Plays”series, which stretches back to the dawn of the 20th century.The most recent edition, The Best Plays Theater Yearbook2005–2006, continues that tradition in fine style, highlightingboth the theatrical season and the 10 best plays thatdebuted during that time: Grey Gardens, In the Continuum, TheLieutenant of Inishmore, Red Light Winter, Stuff Happens, TheHistory Boys, The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, Rabbit Hole,Shinin City and Third. In addition, Editor Jeffrey Eric Jenkinsincludes a detailed compendium of facts and figures aboutthe year in United States theatre. This, plus more than 100black-and-white photographs, make the Yearbook an invaluablerecord of current trends (both successes and failures)in American theatre from coast to coast. [ISBN: 0879103469,$49.95, Limelight Editions]www.stage-directions.com • December 2007 41