Another Weightless review— you can read it here.

I sometimes wonder how Beckett or Ionesco or for that matter, Sarah Kane or Howard Barker would have fared trying to start their careers in the American theatre. From the responses of many reviewers to anything but what Mac Wellman calls the “American well-made” (referencing the deathly Scribe of 19th century France famous for wooden and formulaic “well-made” plays—hugely successful by the way) you wouldn’t think that there was already a long tradition of non-realist theatre in this country.

Nor (from the way people talk about “political theatre”) that there is a robust tradition of politically engaged theatre that takes a non-journalistic, poetic approach. This is notably the case in the Latino theatre where Maria Irene Fornes’ influence is enormous–I’m thinking of Cherrie Moraga, José Rivera, and many, many others including newer writers like Quiara Alegría Hudes and Marisela Treviño Orta. It’s also true of many African-American writers such as the astonishing Adrienne Kennedy, Suzan-Lori Parks and newer writers like Marcus Gardley and Christina Anderson–and also since at least the 70s with Anglo-American writers like David Rabe. There just isn’t room to count the ways.