Theater of Terrence McNally

Something about Grace

AvRaymond-Jean Frontain

Häftad, Engelska, 2021

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Beskrivning

Terrence McNally’s canon of plays, books for musicals and opera libretti possesses such a breadth of subject matter and diversity of dramatic modes that critics have had difficulty assessing his accomplishment. This book is the first critical study to identify the four major stages of McNally’s development in terms of his understanding of how theater helps the modern person trapped in a seemingly profane existence to find a gateway to the transcendent. Drawing upon such diverse religious thinkers as Martin Buber, Mircea Eliade, Ilia Delio and Carter Heyward, Frontain analyzes the evolution of McNally’s understanding of grace, not as a gift bestowed by an all-powerful deity upon a desperate soul, but as the unwarranted—and, thus, all the more unusual—“act of devotion” (McNally’s phrase) that one person performs for another. By seeking to foment community, most importantly at the height of the AIDS pandemic, McNally’s theater itself proves to be a channel of grace. McNally’s greatest success is shown to be the creation of a theater of empathy and compassion in contradistinction to Artaud’s “theater of cruelty” and Albee’s Americanization of the theater of the absurd.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2021-10-15
Mått:153 x 218 x 27 mm
Vikt:676 g
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Antal sidor:374
Förlag:Associated University Presses
ISBN:9781683932178

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Raymond-Jean Frontain is professor of English and former director of the Humanities Institute at the University of Central Arkansas.

Innehållsförteckning

PrefaceIntroduction: Something about Grace: McNally’s Religious HumanismChapter One: Someone is Out There: Existential Angst in And Things That Go Bump in the NightChapter Two: “I Can’t Believe This Whole Night”: Redemption by Farce in The RitzChapter Three: Long Night’s Journey into Day: Frankie and Johnny as Sexual EucharistChapter Four: The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Swimmer: Lips Together, Teeth ApartChapter Five: “Allow, Accept, Be”: McNally’s Engagement with Hindu Spirituality in A Perfect GaneshChapter Six: Communal Survival and the Dance of Death in Love! Valour! Compassion!Chapter Seven: “All Men Are Divine”: Religious Mystery and Homosexual Identity in Corpus ChristiChapter Eight: McNally on the Cross: Dead Man Walking, Crucifixion, and A Man of No ImportanceChapter Nine: Discovering the Authentic Self: Dedication and the Salvific Function of TheaterChapter Ten: Sing for Your Supper, Sing for Your Salvation: Golden Age, Master Class, and The Lisbon TraviataConclusion: The Music of Forgiveness: The Visit and Mothers and SonsAppendix: A Calendar of the Works of Terrence McNallyWorks CitedIndexAbout the Author

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