The three full-length plays in this collection are:
ALFRED AND VICTORIA: A LIFE
CHILD OF LUCK
IS HE STILL DEAD?
ALFRED AND VICTORIA: A LIFE:
"...how tasteful, elegant
and strangely poignant this version of the Bloomingdale-Morgan
scandal proves to be. Playwright Freed has wisely elected not to
further exploit this couple for melodramatic purposes. ALFRED AND
VICTORIA: A LIFE is a love story, and one of the few truly moving
romances to be seen on a local stage in quite some time.
Freed's fragmented approach to
the Bloomingdale-Morgan story allows him to more freely explore
the complex Pygmalion-Galatea, Lear-Cordelia elements. Freed's
alternative approach is more provocative, equating sexual
politics with America's post-1960s move to a permanent war
economy... Freed's play [is] so curiously moving."
Richard Stayton, Los Angeles
Herald Examiner
originally produced by the Los Angeles Theater Center
1 M, 1 F
CHILD OF LUCK:
"Freed's scorching drama is
so hot it sizzles. Freed may be the best hard- ball playing
political dramatist around. His plays don't just suggest a
political viewpoint, they are about the political mechanism
itself. Freed's view of American politics is deeply cynical and
astute. His style is ruthless and relentless.
The cold-hearted CHILD OF LUCK
cuts to the quick. In the first campaign of the 21st century,
John Kelly, the son of an assassinated politician who served as
John Kennedy's right-hand man, announces his candidacy for
president."
Kathryn Bernheimer, Sunday
Camera
"Freed's audacity is
admirable. You even have to admire the shameless way he draws on
recent headlines. By piling scandal upon scandal, Freed creates a
delirious, nightmarish America that easily could represent where
we're headed over the next ten years."
Alan Stern, The Denver Post
originally produced by the Denver Center Theater
4 M, 1 F
IS HE STILL DEAD?:
"Beckett's spirit inhabits
IS HE STILL DEAD?, which the playwright has subtitled `A Comedy,'
referring to a vaudevillian give-and-take between the Joyces as
they attempt to flee Nazi-occupied France in 1940, two months
before Joyce died. The tensions fan the flames of an already
volatile marriage."
Jan Stuart, The New York
Times
"Every precious image of
the world premiere of IS HE STILL DEAD? should be savored and
celebrated....
Donald Freed's play captures
both detail and essence as he explores a day in the life of the
writer James Joyce and his wife Nora....
The script, a wise and witty
one...[is] brilliantly conceived.
Theater at its best, IS HE STILL
DEAD is a play which, without becoming overly sentimental, speaks
of love through the ages. The characters live on."
Fred Sokol, Union News
(Springfield MA)
originally produced by the Long Wharf Theater, New Haven CT
1 M, 1 F
PLAYS BY DONALD FREED
I S B N: 0-88145-088-X, $16.95