
cover photo by Monique Carboni
“…Sex, violence, heartache. As it weaves together nine
lives and several distinct story lines, Mr Leonard’s ambitious play circles
continually around these themes, with the troublesome issue of race relations a
common thread to all….
Mr Leonard writes with precision for an impressive variety of characters; the
dialogue [is] scabrous, grittily naturalistic, sometimes potently pause filled,
sometimes pungent with brute feeling.”
Charles Isherwood, New York Times
“Opening with the sight of a gagged white dude
teetering on a chair, hands tied, neck in a noose, being terrorized by a
gun-wielding African-American man, UNCONDITIONAL is terrific theater...anybody
liking a good and nasty yarn will be absorbed… Murder, heartbreak, desolation
and, yes, even some potential happiness…are among the outcomes in Leonard’s saga
of big city blues.”
Michael Sommers, The Star Ledger
“Leonard’s play is a punch-in-the-gut drama, intent on
showing the current state of the nitty-gritty of race relations, with the accent
decidedly on the gritty… [Leonard’s] talent for characterization and
storytelling cannot be denied, and while his vision may be bleak, bleak, bleak,
it still makes for absorbing theatre.”
Karl Levett, BackStage
This guy [Leonard] comes at you head on and with no
holds barred, like no one that I know of at work presently in the theater. He is
a force to be reckoned with, a force that is needed, a kind of raw, innocent,
daredevil committed to his own aesthetic.
David Rabe
world premiere by Labyrinth Theater Company, New York
5 M, 4 F
I S B N 978-0-88145-463-5
$14.95
read the first scene or scenes on line