Excerpt above from America Hurrah. Below are some reviews:
—“Fascinating! Brilliant! … perhaps the most consistently fascinating, frequently brilliant evening of drama produced so far this season.… “ Wall Street Journal.
—“Hurricane of horror.” Boston Globe.
—“At last something new.” New York Review of Books.
—“Brilliant.” Harold Pinter.
—“His plays don’t develop, they explode.” Variety.
—“I was especially impressed by America Hurrah. It is possible that Motel is the best one-act play I’ve ever seen.” Norman Mailer.
My high school theatre class put this on in junior year and I was a sort of assistant director. It’s a pretty fantastic play and I still remember quite a bit of the scenes. A theme that sort of prevailed throughout the play was feeling of sheer helplessness, invisibility, and how inescapable it all is. A lack of control, I think, which culminates in the loss of individuality or death. This season of Mad Men is really hitting hard on those points, especially as we see Don lose interest in a job he used to drown himself in, but really it seems to be affecting each and every character. And despite all these life changing events happening to the characters no one seems invested in other people’s problems. I really can’t wait to see how it all comes together at the end of the season.
