“Adam Rapp is a
latter-day Sam Shepard. ESSENTIAL SELF-DEFENSE is an entertaining tale of fear
and loathing in midwestern America.”
John Lahr, The New Yorker
“The
opening image of Adam Rapp’s quirky-glum
ESSENTIAL SELF-DEFENSE
is wonderfully rich: Social outcast Yul stands center stage in a bright-yellow
jumpsuit whose thick, rounded padding makes him look like a ridiculous superhero
or a jaundiced Michelin man. Yul works in a self-defense class as the poor sap
who takes karate chops from women such as Sadie. When Yul dons the suit, he
acquires multiple shifting identities: victim, victimizer, hero, monster. As the
ambiguous antihero of a stylized post–September 11 work about love and safety,
Yul is a fascinating figure….
Rapp was born
to wrestle words to the page and then to the stage; he has a love of language
and a zest for his characters' lives.”
David Cote, Time Out
New York
6 M, 2 F
originally produced Playwrights Horizons
I S B N: 0-88145-372-2, $8.95