Waverly Gallery - Softcover

Lonergan, Kenneth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802137563 ISBN 13: 9780802137562

Publisher: Grove Press, 2000

Synopsis

Kenneth Lonergan is known for his trademark humor and genius for capturing the real heart and soul of human interactions. Time magazine raved that he is "among our most gifted, unflinching and unpretentious new playwrights," and called his first play, This Is Our Youth, one of the ten best plays of 1998. With The Waverly Gallery, Lonergan has once again shown himself to have "one of the keenest ears of any working playwright" (Ben Brantley, The New York Times). A powerfully poignant and often hilarious play, The Waverly Gallery is about the final years of a generous, chatty, and feisty grandmother's final battle against Alzheimer's disease. Gladys is an old school lefty and social activist and longtime owner of a small art gallery in Greenwich Village. The play explores her fight to retain her independence and the subsequent effect of her decline on her family, especially her grandson. More than a memory play, The Waverly Gallery captures the humor and strength of a family in the face of crisis. "You will be awed by Lonergan's writing." -- Christopher Isherwood, Variety; "[Lonergan] has written a loving but brutal, commercial yet unflinching American family drama that knows about the simultaneous human systems of entertainment and agony. As anyone who cares about aging loved ones already knows, life on that particular edge is often so real you have to laugh. . . he is dead-on about family in all its simultaneous affection and irritation." -- Linda Winer, Newsday; "A stirring and soulful, comic drama ... classically so, a la Glass Menagerie ... Waverly is often deeply funny. It is both painful and hilarious." -- Ben Brantley, The New York Times

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Kenneth Lonergran is known for his trademark humor and genius for capturing the real heart and soul of human interactions. Ben Brantley raved in The New York Times that Lonergran has "one of the keenest ears of any working playwright."

A powerfully poignant and often hilarious play, The Waverly Gallery is about the final years of a generous, chatty, and feisty grandmother's final battle against Alzheimer's disease. Gladys is an old-school lefty and social activist and longtime owner of a small art gallery in Greenwich Village. The play explores her fight to retain her independence and the subsequent effect of her decline on her family, especially her grandson. More than a memory play, The Waverly Gallery captures the humor and strength of a family in the face of crisis.

"A stirring and soulful, comic drama...classically so, a la Glass Menagerie.... Waverly is often deeply funny. It is both painful and hilarious."--Ben Brantley, The New York Times

"You will be awed by Lonergran's writing."--Christopher Isherwood, Variety

"One of the most attractively modest, deeply poignant and even strangely comic works New York has seen in a long time."--Sam Whitehead, Time Out New York

"[Lonergran] has written a loving but brutal...American family drama that knows about the simultaneous human systems of entertainment and agony. As anyone who cares about aging loved ones already knows, life on that particular edge is often so real you have to laugh...he is dead-on about family in all its simultaneous affection and irritation."--Linda Winer, Newsday

Kenneth Lonergran is the author of This Is Our Youth, selected as one of Time magazine's ten best plays of 1998. In addition he was nominated for a Drama Desk Best Play Award and received Encore magazine's Taking Off Award. The Waverly Gallery was nominated for the John Gassner Playwriting Award. His screenwriting credits include Analyze This and The Lost Army. His film You Can Count on Me, which he wrote and directed, shared the Sundance 2000 Grand Jury prize and won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award.

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0802137563
• ISBN 13: 9780802137562
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128