“A television blares in the background. A bloody child is carried into the room.
And at least three kinds of bodily fluids are spilled. This can mean only one
thing: Adam Rapp is back in town.
Mr Rapp has always written with the energy and tastefulness of a punk rock
band, so it should come as no surprise that his latest , FINER NOBEL GASES,
follows the drugged-out members of an East Village rock group who waste away
their days in front of the television, their eyes half-open, looking almost
comatose.
In 2000 Mr Rapp burst on the scene with NOCTURNE, a highly praised monologue
about a piano prodigy living in the shadow of the death of his sister. Since
then he has written a handful of grimly poetic plays including FASTER,
TRUEBLINKA and STONE COLD DEAD SERIOUS—none
of which you would probably want to take your grandmother to.
The hallmarks of a play by Mr Rapp are slangy, potent dialogue; a dark, often
baroque worldview; and a deep wallowing in the gratuitous....
Mr Rapp is aiming for something much more grand and metaphysical than just
another mundane tale of arrested development.”
Jason Zinoman, The New York Times
“Rapp
has concocted a smelly brew here, but like all poisons it can be intoxicatingly
fun to watch other people imbibe the stuff….”
Robert
Hofler, Variety
Originally
produced at The Actors Theater of Louisville
Subsequently produced by Rattlestick Theater
5 M
I S B N: 0-88145-266-1, $8.95