cover photo by Joan Marcus
“Leave
it to Neal Bell. So many recent plays have made forays into the noir
genre—conscious or unconscious, spoofing or surrealist—that I had assumed there
was nothing new to be gotten from it. But Bell walks in, boldly and knowingly,
where legions have trod before, and instantly finds new paths to explore, new
matches of tone and subject, new sources of moral perturbation. His title, from
forensic medicine, describes both the directions in which blood has spurted from
a fatal wound and the aesthetic tactic his script employs. His topic, achingly
visible under the sprayed droplets of his story, is responsibility….”
Michael Feingold, The Village Voice
“Bell’s
writing is so sharp, so focused and so consistently interesting—not
a word is superfluous—that you come away with a surprisingly theatrical
experience….
This is a tense, beautiful, speedy drama set in a right-now world of
urban menace and fear. It’s a theatrical discovery by a major talent.
And it will stay with you long after the final, breathless blackout.”
Jacques le Sourd, The Journal News
“Neal Bell is
one of those playwrights you keep expecting to hit big…. The immaculate stylist
writes clean, crisp lines for characters quivering with urban angst. His humor
is droll and laced with self-deprecating irony, and while his central theme
might be summed up as `spiritual alienation’, his topics are usually timely,
reflecting a macabre interest in crimes of passion and a rather academic
curiosity about what compels humans to violence….”
Marilyn Stasio, Variety
originally produced by Playwrights Horizons
3 M, 1 F
I S B N: 0-88145-292-0, $12.95