Kirjahaku

"Allan Havis is one of the most gifted of our younger playwrights. His chief strength seems to me to be the way he shortens the distance between the private and the political. Quiet, intelligent, lyrical, his plays are that rarest of presences in the American theater: dramas that leave you with something to think about." Richard GilmanThis collection includes three full-length plays: A DARING BRIDE, THE LADIES OF FISHER COVE, and SAINTE SIMONE. A DARING BRIDE: A doomed love story about a United Nations official from Austria who falls for a high class escort working in Manhattan. THE LADIES OF FISHER COVE: Three sisters off the coast of Maine save the life of a mysterious stranger washed ashore. SAINTE SIMONE: Spinning a textured, twin narrative on the theme of possession, SAINTE SIMONE tracks a young New York woman of our era along side the cascading coincidences of Simone Weil from Europe's 1930s. "With THE LADIES OF FISHER COVE], acclaimed playwright Allan Havis has given us a post-AIDS Witches of Eastwick what with three attractive, psychically bonded sisters all seduced by the same half-man, half-devil. This time, though, there's little room for whimsy. These women and every other female in the small Maine town have been quarantined because all the men have died of a horrible plague. In fact, the strange, deformed, smooth-talking visitor is the first male to survive more than a few hours of contact with these women. Havis's moody drama always keeps us guessing, its poetic moments surprisingly potent and its intentions never so obscure as to lost the audience." On Stage"Allan Havis has fashioned a rollicking myth that might function as a rebuke for an errant feminism or as a wish fulfillment fantasy for a third sex. Whatever its purpose, it was great fun, marked by mystery and] wit." J Rudolf Abate, Stages

Cult Films: Taboo and Transgression looks at nine decades of cult films history within American culture. By highlighting three films per decade including a brief summary of the decade's identity and sensibility, the book investigates the quality, ironies, and spirit of cult film evolution. The twenty-seven films selected for this study are analyzed for story content and in their respective transgressions regarding social, aesthetic, and political codes. Characteristic of this book is the notion that many exciting genres make up cult films-including horror, sci-fi, fantasy, film noir, and black comedy. Further, the book reaches out to several foreign film directors over the decades in order to view cult films as an intentional art form. Political and ideological controversies are covered; arresting back-story details that lend perspective on a film fill out the analysis and the historic framework for many film titles. The book, by emphasizing the condensed survey over decades and by choosing outstanding titles, differs from other general studies on cult films.

"Before there was Eve there was Lilith. In his new play, LILITH, Allan Havis has placed Adam's legendary first wife at the center of a parable about marriage. Springing Lilith loose in our age, the play is as devious as it is diabolical. The first act is in biblical times, the second in present-day New York, but the distinction is not intended to be clear-cut... Mr Havis weaves an intricate web of lustfulness and deceit... The sardonic language could have been written by a contemporary counterpart of the Swedish playwright Strindberg]... As in his earlier plays, MINK SONATA and MOROCCO, Mr Havis shows a mordant wit, used this time to ask the question, who is Lilith and what is her fatal attraction." Mel Gussow, The New York Times ..".the tightly wound play begins with a cunning, crafted charm, then gradually grows its own demonic wings and flies off into a mysterious, dangerous realm... Havis has long been praised for his skillful, laconic style and his ability to build toward an unexpected, chilling monstrosity. LILITH, with its literary dialogue and creeping air of suspicion, is no exception... Havis likes to subvert American drama's insistence on explanations, and deliberately leaves things hazy, but he is often disturbingly direct in his treatment of women. As in his earlier plays--MOROCCO, MINK SONATA, HAUT GO T--Havis presents two contrasting but inseparable images of women: here, he plays on the old virgin-whore theme. No question, he does it masterfully..." Alisa Solomon, The Village Voice

An intriguing thriller in Haiti, showcasing an American doctor who experiments with a new infant feeding formula and along the way is coerced by CIA operatives to treat the commanding Haitian General who has only a few months to live. "... Havis's web of ironies - the lure of the rational Gold to the spiritual, decadent Le Croix; a mission of life turned to one of death; assassination as apolitical tool - is fascinating." -L A Weekly "Havis has done a beautiful job in sketching multi-faceted characters who never reveal themselves totally to the audience. The playwright has a cinematic writing style ... Havis blurs reality and the supernatural like filmmaker David Lynch did in his recent Blue Velvet." -Daily Press (Norfolk, Virginia) "HAUT GO T isn't only another political drama drawing metaphorical conclusions about sleazy U S involvement in a Caribbean nation (though Havis slips that knife in, too). Jules's odyssey is spiritual, as well as political, and he comes to realize that the foolish rantings of the bizarre, wildly decadent Le Croix have the kernels of truth a fool like Lear's deployed." -The Orange County Register "Havis is maddening and poetic, and Jody McAuliffe's direction is tuned to the playwright's building of tension. If region theater exists to discover and present the best of the new playwrights, Havis's HAUT GO T has certainly earned its place." -Irvine World News Weekly

A young California woman, Maddie Crawford, falls headlong into the world of QAnon. Her beliefs take her to to the Capitol, attending the Stop the Steal Rally on January 6th, and later enmeshed in the violence that followed.Maddie returns to San Diego, imagining that the local school board is about to indoctrinate children in critical race theory. Her solution is to commit an act of terrorism.Follow Maddie's journey as she navigates the political and criminal path she and her family have become embroiled in. The consequences of her radical actions, lead to a personal crisis from which she may never recover.

ARCHITECTS OF THE TAJ MAHAL traces three architects: India's Mir Abdul Karim, Las Vegas' Roseanne L'Anse, and New York's Rex Heuermann.Their lives contrast the sublime Taj Mahal and Trump's Taj Mahal Resort Casino. L'Anse and Heuermann, unknown to one another, both worked for the Trump Organization. Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal to preserve the memory of his favorite wife. Trump buried his first wife Ivana Trump at his Bedminster Golf Course. Their disquieting stories unify over serial sex murders, white collar crimes, and palace violence ensconced in India's antiquity. Legends surround the Taj Mahal's history that have neither been proven or disproven - namely, the lead architects and artisans were killed or had their hands cut off by the emperor to prevent them from building another structure to rival the Taj Mahal.