Richard Maxwell: Plays 1996-2000

This volume collects for the first time the work of one of America's most important, vital and original young voices. Turning the American family drama firmly on its head, "Maxwell strips more layers of explanation from the Freudian family romance, shining light on the humiliation and fury usually reasoned out of sight by psychologizing playwrights. Few characters in contemporary drama are as exposed as Maxwell's."-Marc Robinson, Village Voice

"Imagine if you took a giant hatpin and stuck it into Sylvester Stallone's Rocky. Once all the hot air had leaked out of that melodrama about a working-class underdog who wins fame, fortune and love in the boxing ring, you might find something very much like Richard Maxwell's Boxing 2000. By taking a conventional formula and draining it of all its humid sentimentality and synthetic adrenaline, Mr. Maxwell discovers something new and unexpected. Boxing 2000 is a real knockout: a play that not only challenges theatrical cliches, but your ideas about theatre itself."-Wall Street Journal

""It's a sensation that's felt all too rarely these days. Watching Mr. Maxwell's work makes you think of what it must have been like to stumble upon the baffling but seductive creations of a young Sam Shepard in the early 1960's in the East Village."-, New York Times

This first volume collects nine of Maxwell's early works: Boxing 2000, Caveman, House (1999 OBIE Award winner), Showy Lady Slipper and others.

Richard Maxwell is a writer, director and songwriter. He began his acting career with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, where he helped found the Cook County Theater Department, which challenged the principles of traditional acting training. He is artistic director of New York City Players. His plays have been performed in the U.S. at Soho Rep, The Kitchen, P.S. 122, HERE, the Williamstown Theater Festival, Walker Arts Center and the Wexner Center for the Arts; and in Paris, Berlin, Dublin, Brussels, Amsterdam and Vienna.

“'Maxwell strips more layers of explanation from the Freudian family romance, shining light on the humiliation and fury usually reasoned out of sight by psychologizing playwrights. Few characters in contemporary drama are as exposed as Maxwell's'”

"Nine plays by 'one of the most innovative and essential artists to emerge from American experimental theatre in the past decade' New York Times - published in the wake of his UK visit "By taking a conventional formula and draining it of all its humid sentimentality and synthetic adrenaline, Maxwell discovers something new and unexpected..." Wall Street Journal "Watching Maxwell's work makes you think of what it must have been like to stumble upon the baffling but seductive creations of a young Sam Shepard in the early 1960's in the East Village" Ben Brantley, New York Times "Like a theatrical version of time-lapse photography... the peculiar blend of melodrama and hyperrealism identify the plays as distimctly Maxwellian - mundane and somehow wonderful" Village Voice"

Richard Maxwell began his acting career with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, where he helped found the Cook County Theater Department, which challenged the principles of traditional actor training. He is now artistic director of New York City Players. His plays have been performed in New York, Paris, Berlin, Dublin, Brussels, Amsterdam, Vienna... and London.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.