Mac Wellman is the closest thing to a reincarnation of Gertrude Stein that we've got. Much of his writing frustrates any sort of analysis, and yet it is mesmerizing and beautiful. The monologue "Terminal Hip", which won an Obie award and is included in this collection, is a perfect example of Wellman at his best -- here, the detritus of our common languages converges in a mesmerizing tone poem which begins, "Strange the Y all bent up and dented/ Blew the who to tragic eightball. . ." It's certainly not easy to read, or to sit through in a theatre, but it's worth the effort of attention, for few people have ever been as talented as Wellman at discerning the hidden beauties in the pure sound of language.

But it's not all just about language. There's substance here, though sometimes you really do have to search for it. There's a fascinating adaptation of Dracula (vampires are a common theme in Wellman's work), and some marvelous political satire -- Jesse Helms is a favorite target of Wellman's wit. (Alas, Wellman's best satire, and perhaps his best play, "Sincerity Forever", is not included here, though it is available in the anthology Grove New American Theater edited by MIchael Feingold.)

It's probably fair to say that Mac Wellman is America's leading avant-garde playwright, for though his name is certainly not a household word, his career has been long and broad enough for him to have had many important productions throughout the world, and to have influenced a whole generation of young theatre artists. He is to his own generation what Richard Foreman was (and is) to his, and what I expect Suzan-Lori Parks will be to hers: a formidable imagination, a great artist, an inspiration, and a necessary provocateur.

Mac Wellman is perhaps our greatest contemporary playwright.

He is an intellectual and a verbal acrobat. He is an anti-naturalist.

This collection brings together some of his earlier work. The plays contained are not as beautifully mature as the Crowtet plays or those even more recent. They are still much more interesting than most plays written in the past 50 years or so. Some of the plays were commissioned as site-specific works, which proved to be fascinating exercises for his abundant imagination.

They're probably not for everybody. Witness the scant productions of these works. They're kind of weird. But if you get them--are able to tap into them--the aesthetic experience is overwhelmingly wonderful. Mr. Wellman's heart is as big as his brain, and that's what make these works great.

Possibility one of the finest works to come from playwright Wellman. Some of the obsessions of his plays enter this book. A love story on one hand, a tour-de-force of a coming-of-age book, a mediatation on what it is to be "alien."

Mac Wellman is perhaps our greatest living playwright.

He is a poet and a verbal acrobat. The language sweeps over you and leaves you reeling to catch up--and you want to. He is a social critic and a cynic on one hand, but he has a great big heart and injects this warmth just when the characters are at risk of leaving you cold. A perfect balance.

These two plays are some of his best. The Hyacinth Macaw, in particular, is beautiful and original and moving and--perhaps above all--funny!

They are not necessarily easy reads. Mr. Wellman is an intellectual and makes no attempt to hide it. You may need to keep a dictionary handy (not an ordinary dictionary, the OED would be better). But the plays are more than worth the effort. Rich, real characters in often bizarre and unreal settings. This is Anti-Naturalism.

Highly, highly recommended. Mr. Wellman is genius underappreciated.

If you're curious about the path of American drama in the past thirty years -- that is, American drama other than what Broadway had to offer -- then this is the anthology to get. It's huge, diverse, and full of surprises. If you haven't been paying close attention to off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway, and nowhere-near-Broadway theatre, then there are likely to be unfamiliar names here. That's okay; the editors are knowledgeable and have made their choices carefully (Mac Wellman is himself an excellent playwright). Yes, you'll discover some familiar names, since many of the major American playwrights of the past few decades are included here -- Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, Tony Kushner, etc. However, the excitement in this anthology is how much you will discover: there's Maria Irene Fornes, perhaps the greatest of the avant-garde playwrights to emerge in the '60s; and Len Jenkin, whose plays tend to be a cross between all the good parts of Philosophy 101 and the X-Files; and Suzan-Lori Parks, who is, simply, a genius.

It's certainly not all easy reading, for these are plays by playwrights who love to explore the boundaries of language, of imagery, of theatrical imagination, but if you're adventurous and willing to have your conceptions of the theatre's possibilities be expanded, then this book will be a treasure-trove for you.

The only anthology to rival this one is Michael Feingold's Grove New American Theatre, which includes six wonderful scripts. From the Other Side of the Century includes over thirty. Get both if you can, but if you can only have one, then this is the anthology to buy.