Aunt Dan and Lemon

by Wallace Shawn

Ferociously comic, Shawn¹s stunning commentary on a central moral question of our time ‹how literate, civilized society can commit the most obscene acts of history‹ has lost no relevance as recent events in Bosnia, to name just one example, attest. The story of a fragile, impressionable young English woman and her education by charismatic Aunt Dan was extremely controversial when first staged in 1985, largely because it risked being confused with the very thing it was trying to attack. Rather than supplying a "satisfying ending," the playwright challenges the audience to dispute the horrific attitudes of the characters, and to find in themselves not only resistance to evil but its very source.

Wallace Shawn¹s Maria and Bruce and The Fever -winner of the 1991 Obie as best new American play- have established his reputation as one of our most intellectually provocative and morally challenging playwrights. Also well-know as a character actor, Shawn has appeared in dozens of movies, most prominently Manhattan, Radio Days, and My Dinner with Andre, which he also wrote. Winner of the coveted Obie Award, Aunt Dan and Lemon was successfully produced by the Royal Court Theatre in London and the Public Theatre in New York. Frank Rick of the New York Times called it "the most stimulating, not to mention demanding American play to emerge this year."