A quartet of socially minded plays that wear their themes on their sleeves.
In this collection of plays, Bejan probes the spaces between the world as it is and the way it could be.
The idealistic characters in this collection of plays start out expecting the world to be orderly, only to discover that disorder is the norm. The four-act “To Those Who Haven’t Stopped Thinking” takes place in a post-apocalyptic society known as the Universe, where the rules seem arbitrary and everyone is locked into an unfulfilling social niche. When an idealistic do-gooder arrives from the Beyond, she’s shocked by how much society has deteriorated, but her attempts to reform things don’t go as planned. The 20-scene “DISTRICTLAND” takes place in and around a shared house in Washington, D.C., where a group of young professionals grapple with the highs and lows of government-adjacent work during the height of the Obama years. “Google me, Fool me, Rule me,” goes the slam-poetry opening monologue. “Institution after institution, / Bureaucrats and Bureaucracy / From suburban strip-mall / To the MALL / Concrete urban jungle / The land of opportunity / The land of intensity…” Morgan, a young Black woman, and Gerard, a young Senegalese man, find themselves admitted to a D.C. hospital’s psych ward for their mental health issues in “Finally Quiet in My Mind.” Morgan is haunted by intrusive visions and auditory hallucinations related to her family and her childhood best friend. Can Gerard help her figure out their meaning, even when her doctors have failed? The 10-minute “Life According to Swami Shiva” is a one-scene play with just two characters, a guru named Shiva and his student, Ella. Ella has been harboring deep sexual feelings for her guru; when she finally confesses them, she doesn’t get the response she expects.
Bejan’s plays grapple with the intersection of the political and the personal, examining the friction between the idealized fantasies that inform a person’s actions and the grim reality that often frustrates them. The playwright excels at finding ways to dramatize this conflict, as in “DISTRICTLAND,” when Maria, a young State Department employee growing tired of D.C., criticizes her naïve roommate Dave for the international focus of his “progressive leadership network happy hour”: “MARIA: My problem is that…you are totally ignoring the immediate issues here and now: poverty, education, health care, immigration—I could go on. DAVE: We are not ignoring them! MARIA: Well I didn’t hear a word about any of it at the drinks. DAVE: Read our website.” “DISTRICTLAND” is the strongest of the plays, mostly due to its large cast and free-wheeling, slice-of-life mini-scenes, one of which consists solely of a character singing an Ani DiFranco song to herself in its entirety. On the whole, however, the plays suffer from a tendency to be thematically on the nose, more developed in their political content than they are in their characters or plots. While talented actors could undoubtedly lend some gravitas to these roles, few moments leap off the page.
A quartet of socially minded plays that wear their themes on their sleeves.Pub Date: March 19, 2023
ISBN: 9781387369881
Page Count: 235
Publisher: Lulu.com
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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