Product Description

"Satire is her oxygen. . . . In her new oddball comedy, Dead Man's Cell Phone, Sarah Ruhl is forever vital in her lyrical and biting takes on how we behave."-The Washington Post

"Ruhl's zany probe of the razor-thin line between life and death delivers a fresh and humorous look at the times we live in."-Variety

"Sarah Ruhl is deliriously imaginative and fearless in her choice of subject matter. She is an original."-Molly Smith, artistic director, Arena Stage

An incessantly ringing cell phone in a quiet café. A stranger at the next table who has had enough. And a dead man-with a lot of loose ends. So begins Dead Man's Cell Phone, a wildly imaginative new comedy by playwright Sarah Ruhl, recipient of a MacArthur "Genius" Grant and Pulitzer Prize finalist for her play The Clean House. A work about how we memorialize the dead-and how that remembering changes us-it is the odyssey of a woman forced to confront her own assumptions about morality, redemption, and the need to connect in a technologically obsessed world.

Sarah Ruhl's plays have been produced at theaters around the country, including Lincoln Center Theater, the Goodman Theatre, Arena Stage, South Coast Repertory, Yale Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, among others, and internationally. She is the recipient of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (for The Clean House, 2004), the Helen Merrill Emerging Playwrights Award, and the Whiting Writers' Award. The Clean House was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2005. She is a member of 13P and New Dramatists.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #57337 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781559363259
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Sarah Ruhl received the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 2004 for her play "The Clean House," which has been produced at Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia, South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC. Her play Eurydice has been produced at Madison Repertory Theatre and Berkeley Repertory

Customer Reviews

not a bad gimmick, but a gimmick
Begins with promise, then slowly fizzles. Some literistic phoniness -- as when Dwight says to Jean "I dreamed you were the letter Z." Nobody's ever dreamed that. It's doubtful that anyone has ever announced they've dreamed that, either, other than here in Scene Two.

Interesting, Strange, Not that Funny
The reviews call this play a comedy. If it's a comedy, it's not a very funny one (or else the jokes play better on stage). It gets off to a strong start: woman answers dead man's cell phone in a cafe, and then finds herself entangled in the lives of the people he left behind. It's a great premise; unfortunately, it falls apart at the end. The relationship between the main character and the brother of the dead man feels unearned -- like they fall in love because the playwright decided they should. The metaphysical mumbo-jumbo is confusing, and ultimately the play just doesn't work. Too bad, because it really is an awesome premise.

Expressionistic journey
This is a contemporary expressionistic/surrealistic view of a woman who investigates a dead man's family by tracing the information in his cell phone. There are some clever black comic moments, such as when the cell phone owner dies, dinner is experienced with his mother and his family and the romance which springs between the dead man's brother and the cell phone woman.
However, the plot becomes too far fetched when the profession of the dead man is depicted---he sells and ships dead body parts for transplants. Ruhl tries to paint a black comic society of users and those trapped within routines. However, her symbolism ans expressionism fall short since she does not use them judiciously. Everything becomes exaggerated here--including the romance between the brother and the cell phone discovery woman. The plot and atmosphere become too MUCH ALL OF ONE--TOO MUCH THE SAME; SO THAT CONTRASTS AND DELINEATIONS BECOME MUDDLED INTO A MASHED UP CHAOTIC UNIVERSE.