Where Do We Live and Other Plays

By Christopher Shinn

Book Overview

This anthology marks the emergence of one of the finest and most innovative new artists writing for the theater today. "The secret of Shinn's success is in the way he exploits the dramatic gap between what is said and that which is left unsaid . . . writing like this is rare," said the London Independent. Where Do We Live, the title play, was written shortly after 9/11 and though never referenced, it still haunts this chronicle of the struggles of several aspiring and gifted young New Yorkers on the Lower East Side. Like all his work, it is a deeply affecting story of how we define our lives and our place in the world.

The Coming World
"Shinn certainly looks like a shining prospect for the future."--Daily Telegraph

Four
"Nothing is simple emotionally. The play keeps delivering small shocks and aches that end in a standoff, or maybe in that pause between despair, resignation and a twinge of hope. Haunting."--Margo Jefferson, The New York Times

Other People
"Shinn writes with graceful compassion about people trapped inside their own skins unable to make sense of their lives."--The Guardian

What Didn't Happen
". . . is about the distance between people, and the ways in which even friends, spouses and lovers are ultimately unknowable to one another . . . a playwright to cherish."--The New York Times

Christopher Shinn's plays have been produced at Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, the Vineyard Theatre in New York and often at London's Royal Court Theatre. Where Do We Live received a 2003 Olivier Award nomination for most promising playwright. His next play, On the Mountain, premieres in New York City early in 2005.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1559362561
• ISBN13: 9781559362566
• Release Date: July 2005
• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A Feast

A formidable talent in a generous soul who insists on the full embodied humanity of his characters. Climax, refusal to climax and anti-climax are recurrent expressions of desire fulfilled, stifled or suppressed. Shinn dispenses orgasms like a jolly Santa Claus on Christmas morning rewarding the struggles of his characters and offering them the stuff of hope they need to reach the next moment. The greatest gift he bestows on them, no matter how privileged or ravaged, is consciousness of their own limitations--intellectual, moral and emotional--up and down the socio-economic ladder. In consciousness, he confers dignity and plants the seeds of individual positive transformation. One senses he is very much on this journey too, sharing insights when they're sufficiently developed and shaped to be of service. A wonderful, illuminating collection. Highly recommended.