Jump to content

Dirty Story (play)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dirty Story is a 2003 play by John Patrick Shanley. It allegorically presents the political relationship between Israel and Palestine as a sexual, sadomasochistic relationship between a man and a woman. This turbulent relationship is refereed by a gun toting, cigarette selling American cowboy and his snide British side-kick.

It premiered in 2003,[1][2][3] and was revived in 2012.[4][5] It was published in 2008.[6]

Reception

[edit]

A review in The New York Times called it "appallingly entertaining".[1] Another review in The New York Times wrote that "The play's strength lies in Mr. Shanley's keen ear for each side's stereotypes, both of itself and of the other."[2]

A review on TheaterMania wrote that "By play's end, the dialogue has devolved into baldly polemical statements; each actor is nothing more than a mouthpiece for a political position, and there is no sense of character remaining. This may have been the playwright's intention, but it's a losing strategy."[3]

A negative review on Crosscut.com wrote "In the end, though, it’s hard to know what the point of Dirty Story is."[5]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Brantley, Ben (5 March 2003). "THEATER REVIEW; Bedfellows Tangled On a Field Of Battle". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  2. ^ a b Haberman, Clyde (30 March 2003). "THEATER; Can New York's Plays Get The Middle East?". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  3. ^ a b Bacalzo, Dan (5 March 2003). "Dirty Story". www.theatermania.com. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  4. ^ Gallaher, Rachel (17 July 2012). "Shawn Law Dominates in 'Dirty Story'". City Arts Magazine. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  5. ^ a b Kaderlan, Alice (15 July 2012). "Intiman's 'Dirty Story' is more allegory than drama | Crosscut". crosscut.com. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  6. ^ Shanley, John Patrick (2007). Dirty story and other plays (1st ed.). New York: Theatre Communications Group. ISBN 9781559362825.