cover photo by Marianne Courville
"ROOTS IN WATER is a series
of twelve short plays, ranging from five to fifteen minutes in length.
Some have already been staged at a small theater in Woodstock,
but the new radio production is the first time they have been
performed as a whole.
Richard calls the plays `a fragmented portrait of a generation'—his generation, the `baby boom' children of the 1950s who came
to adulthood in post-Vietnam America. All the characters are
American, though not all the plays take place in the U S A. The
drama spans the years 1976 to 1988 and the plays were written
over the past eight years.
Stylistically different—some are funny, some satirical, some
moving—they focus on a disparate set of characters including a
Vietnam pilot, former anti-war campaigners, teachers,
politicians, and lawyers. Nelson sees the series as being `like a
volume of collected stories'." Radio Times
"A tapestry of American society."
Sheridan Morley, The Sunday Telegraph
"Something of the spareness and the ability to set up
slow-burning trains for thought which mark out Raymond Carver's
short stories."
Robert Hanks, The Independent
originally produced by River Arts Repertory, Woodstock NY
2 M, 2 F, or more
I S B N: 0-88145-093-6, $8.95