cover art by Randi B Robin
“Cunningham came up with the idea for this play while researching a story for
the New York Times on survivalists, those people who are training and preparing
so they can survive the end of the world. BANG is far from a documentary,
however. Cunningham uses survivalists as the raw material for a preposterous
black comedy that highlights one manifestation of our modern madness.”
Tom Valeo, Chicago Herald
“Laura Cunningham's script tells how a
couple of east-coast, neurasthenic, miserable, impotent, boom-generation
failures named Len and Sheila Calendar visit their old friend Bev and her new
husband Roy in Roy's underground, nuke-resistant condo in Utah...
Naturally Len and Sheila and Roy and Bev get stuck down there together....
Cunningham gives us all the predictable reversals, but BANG remains a hilarious
analysis of who's going to join the cockroaches at the end of the world and why.
Hilarity: it's in the lines, of which I wrote down a great many that I'm not
going to read back to you here. Suffice to say that Cunningham maintains a
laugh-per-line radio about equal to Neil Simon's while remaining true to her
situation and her considerable intelligence.”
Anthony Alder, Reader
“BANG is more than a farce, however....
Cunningham has created a fantastic reality in her play, but within the
nonsense are disturbing ideas that won't be received by an audience unless
delivered through laughter.”
Tom Valeo, Chicago Magazine
I S B N 0-88145-300-5, $12.95
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PLAYS BY LAURA SHAINE CUNNINGHAM