Marisol and Other Plays

There was a period in the early 1990s when the Magic Realism of Jorge Luis Borges and the South American writers seemed to erupt into American theater like an exotic tropical flower taking over a wood lot. It also was the era of angels, which came to a climax in Tony Kushner's Angels in America. But the two trends intersected most gaudily in Jose Rivera's Marisol, the story of a young woman living in a terrifying inner-city wasteland who tries to maintain her faith that her Guardian Angel is protecting her. But one day her Guardian Angel appears with bad news. The angels are revolting against God, and Marisol will henceforth be on her own. This sets Marisol off on a surreal journey to find security and faith in a World English bereft of either. A fascinating black fairy tale. Also in this volume: Each Day Dies With Sleep and the widely produced Cloud Tectonics.