"...BEIRUT, Alan Bowne's
stunner about love in the plague years. It's `the near future:'
we're in a dump of a room on the Lower East Side, where a young
man named Torch has been quarantined after testing positive for a
nameless disease that sounds a lot like AIDS. His girlfriend,
Blue, who has not been infected, makes the dangerous journey
across the quarantine line to be with him....
The marvel of Mr Bowne's work
is the richly raunchy language, tuned to the gritty rhythms of
the street. It's crude yet lyrical; even at its most
scatological, the dialog sings....
They (Torch and Blue) are a
Romeo and Juliet of the boroughs, an East Side story....
...the poetry and power of
BEIRUT..."
Walter Goodman, The New York
Times
"...Alan Bowne makes a
statement about sexually transmitted disease that is more
powerful than all the soapbox orations which have been attempted
theatrically to explore the subject. He deals with the human
spirit as it faces the inevitable, and it is a spirit of hope and
love, of logic and of empathy..."
T H McCulloh, Drama-Logue
First produced by the Manhattan Class Company
2 M 1 F
I S B N 0-88145-057-X: $8.95
also available in PLAYS BY ALAN BOWNE