NONFICTION

Three Somebodies: Plays About Notorious Dissidents

by Kat Georges
Three Rooms. Mar. 2018. 192p. illus. ISBN 9781941110546. pap. $19.95; ebk. ISBN 9781941110553. THEATER
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Poet (Our Lady of the Unger; Punk Rock Journal) and playwright Georges ascribes absurd humanity to three notorious personalities, calling them dissidents, which is perhaps a misnomer. SCUM: The Valerie Solanas Story portrays the woman who shot Andy Warhol with a manic humanity she probably doesn't deserve. One might question the choice of Oscar Wilde's prize-fighting nephew Arthur Cravan, a poet who influenced the Dadaists, represented in Art Was Here. But most readers will understand the appeal of Jack the Rapper, a riff on Jack the Ripper, a mystery that persists to this day. This far-out piece features T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. All three plays are Off Off Broadway, Dada, and absurd, but they are compelling enough to keep people engaged. Some will scratch their heads. The plays were produced in San Francisco at the Marilyn Monroe Memorial Theater, which Georges founded in 1992.
VERDICT For those who enjoy the theater of the absurd. This might be a puzzling read for readers looking for straight narrative, but it could be brilliant in the abstract.
Reviewed by Ellen Bates, Princeton, NJ , Mar 15, 2018
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