MR Peter's Connection (Methuen Drama Modern Plays) - Softcover

Miller, Arthur

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0413747301 ISBN 13: 9780413747303

Publisher: Methuen Publishing, 2000

Synopsis

Produced in May 1998 in New York and starring Peter Falk, Mr. Peters' Connections takes place, in Miller's own words, in "that suspended state of consciousness when the mind is freed to roam from real memories to conjectures, from trivialities to tragic insights, from terror of death to glorying in one's being alive." Within the confines of his mind, Mr. Peters interacts with the living members of his family and his long-deceased brother and lover, as well as the imaginary Adele, a black bag lady, who is a figment of Peters' imagination and one of Miller's most original characters. "A work of rare honesty and dignity" (Fintan O'Toole, New York Daily News), Mr. Peters' Connections uncoils with ferocious, life-affirming intensity.

About this title

About the Author:

Arthur Miller was born in New York City in 1915 and studied at the University of Michigan. His plays include All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), A View from the Bridge and A Memory of Two Mondays (1955), After the Fall (1963), Incident at Vichy (1964), The Price (1968), The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972) and The American Clock. He has also written two novels, Focus (1945), and The Misfits, which was filmed in 1960, and the text for In Russia (1969), Chinese Encounters (1979), and In the Country (1977), three books of photographs by his wife, Inge Morath. More recent works include a memoir, Timebends (1987), and the plays The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), The Last Yankee (1993), Broken Glass (1993), which won the Olivier Award for Best Play of the London Season, and Mr. Peter's Connections (1998). His latest book is On Politics and the Art of Acting. Miller was granted with the 2001 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He has twice won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and in 1949 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

From Library Journal:

At the age of 84, 50 years after he received the Pulitzer Prize for Death of a Salesman, Miller remains the premiere living American dramatist and one of the three or four greatest of this century. This play, which debuted Off Broadway last year with Peter Falk in the title role, is Miller's strongest play in 30 years. Effectively using absurdist techniques, Miller places Mr. Peters, a retired pilot, in an abandoned bar, where he encounters his deceased brother, an ex-lover and the man he imagines she might have married had she lived, his daughter and her boyfriend, his wife, and a bag lady who, like most of the other characters, may be a figment of Peters's imagination. With all of them, he seeks connection and, if possible, an answer to the question, "What is the subject?"Aor, indeed, whether we even need a subject any longer. These existential questions are old ones; Miller gives them stunning dramatic shape and force. Essential for all American literature collections.ARobert W. Melton, Univ. of Kansas, Lawrence
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Methuen Publishing
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0413747301
• ISBN 13: 9780413747303
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 47