Showing results by author "Wallace Shawn" in All Categories

Whether writing about the genesis of his plays, such as Aunt Dan and Lemon; discussing how the privileged world of arts and letters takes for granted the work of the “unobtrusives”, the people who serve our food and deliver our mail; or describing his upbringing in the sheltered world of Manhattan’s cultural elite, Shawn reveals a unique ability to step back from the appearance of things to explore their deeper social meanings.

What’s the cost of comfort? In The Fever, playwright, actor, and cultural icon Wallace Shawn (My Dinner with André, The Designated Mourner) captures the crisis of conscience of a privileged American traveler visiting a war-torn country. Faced with the disparity between her rarified world and the real world, she can’t help but wonder if she’s part of the solution or part of the problem.

Although he is guided and inspired by the people he respects, and despite the insufficiency of his knowledge and experience - an insufficiency shared by most (or all) other humans, Wallace Shawn can’t see any real alternative to trying to figure out his own answers to the most essential questions about the world he lives in.

Deux vieux amis, Wallace Shawn et André Gregory, se retrouvent après de longues années de séparation, dans un restaurant français de Manhattan. Shawn approche de la quarantaine, il habite Greenwich Village et gagne chichement sa vie comme auteur dramatique et comédien. L'élégant et distingué Gregory, qui a une dizaine d'années de plus que Shawn, est un metteur en scène d'avant-garde connu, riche, acclamé, très à l'aise en société, marié et père de deux enfants.