Signs of Life ─ Six Comedies of Menace

Joan Schenkar, widely regarded as America's most original female contemporary playwright, is the author of numerous experimental plays which she refers to as "comedies of menace." Bristling with wit and intelligence, the collection features Signs of Life, Cabin Fever, The Universal Wolf, Burning Desires, The Last of Hitler, and Fulfilling Koch's Postulate. These plays explore issues of feminism and gender politics, history and memory, sexuality and violence, bringing to life such figures as Gertrude Stein and Marlene Dietrich, Hitler and Eva Braun, P. T. Barnum and Henry and Alice James, Claude Levi-Strauss and Roland Barthes. Schenkar's charged language and evocative stage directions invite the reader to become both performer and audience, and the experience is enhanced both by richly evocative stage directions and illustrations from productions of the plays. Initially written to be read like novels as well as staged, the plays provide a unique theatrical experience, an experience that can only be accessed by laughter.

JOAN SCHENKAR's plays have been produced in theaters and festivals around the globe and widely reviewed both here and abroad. She has received numerous grants and awards for playwriting and has been guest artist in many colleges and universities throughout the US. Vivian Patraka is Director of the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society at Bowling Green State University, coauthor of Sam Shepard (1985) and coeditor of Feminist Re-Visions (1983).