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Subway Circus

Subway Circus
Your Price: $15.95 CDN
Author: William Saroyan
Publisher: Samuel French (cover image may change)
Format: Softcover
# of Pages: 66
Pub. Date: 2011
ISBN-10: 0573624992
ISBN-13: 9780573624995
Cast Size: 15 performers

About the Play:

Subway Circus is a one-act fantasy by William Saroyan. This free-form dramatic effort, reminiscent of the commedia dell'arte, is actually a series of sketches on the independent fantasies of ten riders of a subway car. Subway Circus is an ensemble theatre experience that weaves together the fantasies and hopes of characters dreaming for justice in a sometimes harsh and unfair world.

Subway Circus follows a young dreamer through the fantasies and daydreams of 10 strangers in a subway car. In his first play, William Saroyan has shown with considerable beauty, humour, and dramatic effect the dreams of some of the people who ride in a metropolitan subway. He uses the confused sequence of vaudeville acts, evocative of the commedia dell'arte tradition, as the basis of its formless structure. The play represents the corruption of American civilization, mechanization of life and man's loss of identity in a world lived by creatures of machine. Even in this early work, William Saroyan demonstrates his interest in the theatre's potential to depict the inner, imaginary world of his characters and to create an atmosphere of carnival excitement and gaiety.

William Saroyan said that while passing through New York in 1935 he had read in The New York Times that he was working on a play. In order to save the newspaper from error, he said, he spent five days writing Subway Circus. While the play is rarely performed professionally, it lends itself to theatre innovation and is an ideal choice for high school drama contests and one-act festivals.

Cast: 7 female, 8 male (flexible casting, 15 performers)

What people say:

"In a public world where people's most profound connections are to their cellphones and eye contact is retractable, it can't be surprising to realize just how unknowable our fellow travellers really are. A journey – on public transport – through the secret lives of strangers: that's the seductive idea, and the fun, of Subway Circus." — Edmonton Journal

About the Playwright:

William Saroyan (1908-1981) was an internationally renowned American writer, playwright, and humanitarian. Hailed as one of America's Greatest Playwrights, in 1939, he was the first American writer to win both the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for his play The Time of Your Life. He famously refused to accept the Pulitzer Prize on the grounds that "Commerce should not patronize art." He achieved great popularity in the thirties, forties, and fifties through his hundreds of short stories, plays, novels, memoirs, and essays. He has been described as "one of the most prominent literary figures of the mid-20th century."

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