Among American playwrights whose plays were first produced in the 1960s, Lanford Wilson deserves close study for several reasons. First, Wilson has been unusually prolific. In less than twenty years, ...
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In the following excerpt, Kauffmann provides a somewhat unfavorable assessment of Lemon Sky, contending that it “accomplishes little.”
Three new off-Broadway productions [Colette, by Ell...
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In the following interview, originally conducted on May 20, 1993, Wilson and Bryer discuss the craft of playwriting, critical reaction to Wilson's work, and his literary influences.
Lanford Wil...
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In the following essay, Williams explores the origin and development of the second and third Talley plays: Talley's Folly and A Tale Told (revised as Talley & Son.)
In a sense, Marshall ...
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In the following essay, Dean asserts that Balm in Gilead displays Wilson's talent for poetic dialogue and that Burn This is one of his most important works.
I hear America singing, the varied c...
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In the following essay, Martine investigates the evolving role of women in Wilson's plays.
There is no inconsistency in the fact that serious and important writers can be placed in a literary t...
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In the following review of Burn This, Montez explores the theme of intimacy and its relevance in a New York City setting, post-September 11, 2001.
Burn This ends with the play's two main charac...
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In the following interview, originally conducted in December 1982, Wilson discusses his penchant for developing complex characters.
I met with Lanford Wilson in December 1982 at the offices of the Cir...
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In the following essay, Kane compares Wilson to Anton Chekhov in terms of their preference for realism in their works and their characterizations of solitude.
In contemporary drama we have become accu...
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In the following interview, originally conducted December 1, 1986, Wilson discusses his early theatrical experiences, influences, and writing style.
Born in Lebanon, Missouri, in 1937, Lanford Wilson ...
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In the following essay, Busby discusses Wilson's Midwestern roots as inspiration for his plays.
Vincent, the main character in Lanford Wilson's first Broadway play, The Gingham Dog, expl...
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In the following excerpt, Hornby discusses Burn This and compares Wilson with other contemporary playwrights.
Lanford Wilson's Burn This concerns three young people—two dancers and a cop...
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In the following excerpt, Erben characterizes Wilson's Angels Fall as a comment on the modern American West.
With The Petrified Forest (1935), Robert E. Sherwood introduced to America a new dra...
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In the following essay, Callens cites Wilson's The Mound Builders as an “existentialist inspired portrait of contemporary life.”
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falco...
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In the following excerpt, Edwards provides a favorable assessment of Burn This, specifically hailing the performance of John Malkovich as Pale.
Theatre is a corrupt art. At any rate, live performance ...
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In the following essay, Jacobi traces the evolution of a comic vision throughout Wilson's career, arguing that with comedy Wilson harmonizes his often-conflicted interests in the past and socia...
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In the following essay, Konas compares the Missouri backgrounds of Wilson and Tennessee Williams and contrasts their uses of a Missouri setting in their major works.
Missouri is sometimes called the C...
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In the following essay, Peterson explicates the pedagogical dimension of Wilson's life and plays.
I first met Lanford Wilson on November 20, 1991, at the Post House Restaurant in Southampton, L...
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In the following essay, Adler survey's Wilson's full-length dramas, analyzing the visual—but not rhetorical—absence of definite places on the stage sets of a dozen plays.
I...
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In the following essay, Witham considers Fifth of July, Michael Weller's Loose Ends, and Israel Horovitz's Alfred Dies with respect to their treatments of Independence Day to dramatize t...
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In the following essay, Schlatter compares Fifth of July, Preston Jones's The Oldest Living Graduate, and Sam Shepard's Curse of the Starving Class and Buried Child with respect to the c...
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In the following essay, Tucker details the circumstances leading up to and including an interview with Wilson around the time he staged the premiere of Redwood Curtain.
“You in school here? &#x...
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In the following essay, Jones presents commentary from Wilson and his colleagues focusing on his writing, specifically Book of Days.
In recent weeks, Lanford Wilson has been sitting quietly on the por...
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Critical Essay by Stanley Kauffmann
[Talley's Folly] is another piece of Lanford Wilson's front-porch knitting about the South Central states, full of the click-clack of theatrical needl...
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Critical Essay by Edith Oliver
["Talley's Folly"] is set in a boathouse—very gingerbready in design—during an evening in 1944 when Sally Talley, aged thirty-one, a s...
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Critical Essay by Julius Novick
For years Mr. Wilson's work did not interest me much; The Hot l Baltimore, his big hit, struck me as rather tired in its conventionality. But with 5th of July la...
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Critical Essay by John Simon
[Talley's Folly] is a duologue between Matt and Sally, from sundown through moonrise and thence to the start of three decades of married happiness…. Matt and...
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Critical Essay by Harold Clurman
Years ago … Talley's Folly … would not have been considered a play…. The piece contains almost no plot in the ordinary sense of that term. ...
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Lanford Wilson
