The God Of Hell - Softcover

Shepard, Sam

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0413775666 ISBN 13: 9780413775665

Publisher: Methuen Drama, 2005

Synopsis

A stunning new play by the great American dramatist

Described by Sam Shepard as 'a takeoff on Republican fascism', this uncompromising black comedy was written just before the 2004 Us presidential election.

Frank and Emma are American dairy farmers, alone in the MidWest. Nothing ever happens. Nothing has happened for years. But now there's a mysterious man hiding in their basement and a government official has come knocking at their door.

The God of Hell had its European premiere at the Donmar Warehouse, London, on 20 October 2005.

'A robust new farce [that] shows Shepard's gift for finding deadpan surrealism in bucolic speech . . . As hilarious as it is sobering' New York Times

'Deliriously entertaining and deeply scary . . . A shivering work of existential mystery' Newsday

'A funny and furious stab at the Bush Administration' The Times

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Pulitzer Prize winner Sam Shepard's latest play is an uproarious, brilliantly provocative farce that brings the gifts of a quintessentially American playwright to bear on the current American dilemma.
Frank and Emma are a quiet, respectable couple who raise cows on their Wisconsin farm. Soon after they agree to put up Frank's old friend Haynes, who is on the lam from a secret government project involving plutonium, they're visited by Welch, an unctuous government bureaucrat from hell. His aggressive patriotism puts Frank, Emma, and Haynes on the defensive, transforming a heartland American household into a scene of torture and promoting a radioactive brand of conformity with a dangerously long half life.

About the Author

Sam Shepard was the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of more than fifty-five plays and three story collections. As an actor, he appeared in more than sixty films, and received an Oscar nomination in 1984 for The Right Stuff. He was a finalist for the W. H. Smith Literary Award for his story collection Great Dream of Heaven. In 2012 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Trinity College, Dublin. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, received the Gold Medal for Drama from the Academy, and was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame. He died in 2017.

Edition details

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0413775666
• ISBN 13: 9780413775665
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 64