David Rabe Criticism
David Rabe, an acclaimed American playwright, novelist, and screenwriter, emerged as a pivotal figure in the theater scene during the Vietnam War era. His work is celebrated for its raw portrayal of war, the challenges faced by veterans, and the broader disintegration of American values. Through a blend of violence and black humor, Rabe’s dramas delve into complex themes such as alienation, miscommunication, and the quest for identity. Central to his oeuvre is the "Vietnam Trilogy," comprising The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, Sticks and Bones, and Streamers. These works examine the psychological turmoil experienced by soldiers and society, as discussed by Jeffery W. Fenn, who highlights their significance within the Vietnam war drama genre.
Rabe’s exploration of moral and societal decay extends beyond the Vietnam context, as seen in plays like Hurlyburly, which critiques the emptiness of Hollywood life. Despite some criticism over its length and rhetoric by Robert Leiter, the play's examination of personal disintegration and drug-fueled relationships offers a powerful social critique. Hurlyburly is further analyzed by Philip C. Kolin, who notes its symbolic use of language to critique personal relationships, a theme echoed in Stanley Kauffmann's review and David Radavich's essay on male homosocial dynamics.
Rabe's other works, such as A Question of Mercy and The Dog Problem, further his engagement with contemporary social issues, tackling assisted suicide and mob comedy respectively. His style, a fusion of naturalistic and absurdist elements, akin to Sam Shepard, subverts traditional realism to mirror the chaos of modern life, as explored by Demastes and Vanden Heuvel. Despite mixed commercial success, Rabe's inventive dramas and his dramatic techniques have earned critical acclaim, notably for their disturbing themes and complex portrayals of male camaraderie and the exploitation of women, which have been critiqued from feminist perspectives.
Beyond the stage, Rabe has ventured into novel writing and screenplays. His film Casualties of War offers a stark depiction of wartime atrocities and has been critiqued for its narrative approach by Gavin Smith and John Simon. His novel Recital of the Dog explores a man's psychological unraveling, as examined by James Brown and Peter Filkins. Rabe’s works continue to challenge audiences, reflecting societal issues through intimate and often unsettling narratives.
Contents
- Principal Works
- Rabe, David (Vol. 4)
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Rabe, David (Vol. 200)
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Staging Hurlyburly: David Rabe's Parable for the 1980s
(summary)
In the following essay, Kolin identifies the major themes of Hurlyburly and illustrates how language, costume, gesture, movement, and stage symbol reveal character and idea in the play.
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An Interview with David Rabe
(summary)
In the following interview, Rabe and Kolin explore Rabe's creative process, highlighting his use of symbolism and ritual in his plays, and discussing how his background and experiences, particularly his time in Vietnam, have influenced his theatrical works and narrative techniques.
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Body Count
(summary)
In the following mixed review of Casualties of War, Smith contends that “the film misses out on the opportunity to provoke ideologically.”
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The Enemy Was Us
(summary)
In the following review, Simon derides the ending of Casualties of War, criticizing the film's portrayal of a true story about an American platoon in Vietnam that kidnaps, gang-rapes, and kills a Vietnamese farm girl, while acknowledging the importance of the story and some effective storytelling by De Palma.
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The House of Atreus Myth in the Seventies and Eighties: David Rabe's The Orphan and Joyce Carol Oates's Angel of Light
(summary)
In the following essay, Colakis compares the use of the House of Atreus myth in Rabe's The Orphan and Joyce Carol Oates's novel Angel of Light.
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Conditioned Response: David Rabe's The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel
(summary)
In the following essay, Fenn asserts that The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel exemplifies the defining characteristics of the genre of the Vietnam war drama and places the play within the context of Rabe's Vietnam trilogy.
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The Metaphysics of Rabe's Hurlyburly: ‘Staring into the Eyes of Providence.’
(summary)
In the following essay, Stafford argues that “the root cause of the social conditions in Hurlyburly arises from metaphysics, more specifically epistemology and ontology.”
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Inside the Head of a Headcase
(summary)
In the following review, Brown views Recital of the Dog as an allegory about crime and punishment.
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Fetch, Speak, Play Dead
(summary)
In the following review, Filkins maintains that “despite a flaw or two, Recital of the Dog is a novel as well-crafted as it is brutal, as obsessive as it is superbly controlled.”
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A Hoodlum in the Existential Mode
(summary)
In the following review, Austin provides a mixed assessment of Those the River Keeps.
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Collapsing Male Myths: Rabe's Tragicomic Hurlyburly
(summary)
In the following essay, Radavich argues that what separates Hurlyburly from other works that explore male homosocial relationships is Rabe's use of comedy and satire.
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Review of Recital of the Dog
(summary)
In the following review, Hutchings cites parallels between Recital of the Dog and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
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The Hurlyburly Lies of the Causalist Mind: Chaos and the Realism of Rabe and Shepard
(summary)
In the following essay, Demastes and Vanden Heuvel contend that the works of Rabe and Sam Shepard embody a new direction in American theater, one that incorporates realism and absurdism to subvert 'the bastion of traditional, strictly linear and causal realist theatre in an attempt to reveal the indeterminate and chaotic nature of the world.'
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A Question of Mercy
(summary)
In the following review, Daniels provides a favorable assessment of A Question of Mercy. David Rabe's gripping new drama confronts the timely topic of assisted suicide. With unsettling candor and disturbing insight, the play arouses pity and understanding of a troubling subject. Director Douglas Hughes has staged the play with conviction, drawing urgency and resonance from his fine principal players.
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When Reason Fails
(summary)
In the following interview, Rabe discusses his dramatic adaptation of Richard Selzer's essay "A Question of Mercy," exploring themes of human folly, shifting alliances, and the societal implications of assisted suicide, while also addressing how the play differs from and aligns with his previous works.
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The Emotion of Multitude and David Rabe's Streamers
(summary)
In the following essay, Barbera details the dramatic techniques used by Rabe to express what W. B. Yeats called the “emotion of multitude.”
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Hello from Hollywood
(summary)
In the following review, Kauffmann discusses Hurlyburly as a reflection of contemporary American morality.
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The Dog Problem
(summary)
In the following review, Hofler offers a negative assessment of The Dog Problem. The bruised male egos and themes of compromised manhood of David Rabe's best plays are all on display in his latest, The Dog Problem. This time out he wraps them in the format of an Italian mob comedy, a not-very-high concept he probably came up with before The Sopranos but not before we all saw Married to the Mob or Prizzi's Honor. What Rabe is doing in hit-man territory with The Dog Problem is anybody's guess.
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What's Wrong with This Picture?: David Rabe's Comic-Strip Plays
(summary)
In the following essay, Zinman suggests that the characters in Rabe's plays are similar to cardboard cutouts and comic-strip characters in the vein of Roy Lichtenstein's paintings.
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Staging Hurlyburly: David Rabe's Parable for the 1980s
(summary)
- Rabe, David (Vol. 8)
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Rabe, David
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Criticism: Overviews And General Studies
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The Crack in the Chimney: Reflections on Contemporary American Playwriting
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Brustein considers Rabe's use of the family to reflect societal problems.
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Primal Screams and Nonsense Rhymes: David Rabe's Revolt
(summary)
In the following essay, Werner describes Rabe's attempts to overcome alienation in the American experience with a new form of expression.
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The Plays of David Rabe: A World of Streamers
(summary)
In the following essay, Hertzbach examines Rabe's use of violence in his plays.
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Notices of David Rabe's First Play, ‘The Chameleon’ (1959)
(summary)
In the following essay, Kolin recounts Rabe's high school career and the production of his first play, now lost.
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Still a Vietnam Playwright After All These Years
(summary)
In the following essay, Christie discusses the feeling of instability at the heart of Rabe's plays.
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David Rabe: Men Under Fire
(summary)
In the following essay, McDonough examines Rabe's depiction of men in his plays, focusing on myths of identity and how Rabe's interest in masculinity has evolved over time.
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The Crack in the Chimney: Reflections on Contemporary American Playwriting
(summary)
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Criticism: Author Commentary
(summary)
In the following interview, Zinman and Rabe explore Rabe's creative influences, his perspective on the use of language in his works, and his engagement with ancient folk legends, such as the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh, alongside his reflections on the thematic separation of sex from love in his plays and forthcoming novel.
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Criticism: Sticks And Bones
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‘The Blind Leading the Blind’: Rabe's Sticks and Bones and Shakespeare's King Lear
(summary)
In the following essay, Adler compares Sticks and Bones with King Lear.
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Sticks and Bones by David Rabe
(summary)
In the following essay, Bernstein examines and discusses criticism of Sticks and Bones and shows how the play combines realism and absurdism.
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David Rabe's Sticks and Bones: The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
(summary)
In the following essay, Cooper provides a critical analysis of Sticks and Bones. For David Rabe, the Vietnam war has been a source of artistic inspiration and creativity. His political and social consciousness, fused with his command of dramaturgy, produces taut expositions of the encounter between the American psyche and a war which assaulted some of the most traditional American values.
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‘The Blind Leading the Blind’: Rabe's Sticks and Bones and Shakespeare's King Lear
(summary)
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Unredeemed Savagery in The Orphan: David Rabe's Contemporary Oresteia
(summary)
In the following essay, Andreach compares Rabe's The Orphan with the original Greek work that inspired him to write it.
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Criticism: In The Boom Boom Room
(summary)
In the following essay, Wade discusses Rabe's use of a nude female dancer at the end of In the Boom Boom Room and its significance both to the play and to varied members of the audience.
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Criticism: Streamers
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Rabe's Streamers
(summary)
In the following essay, Kolin describes Streamers as a coming-of-age story. The last play in his Vietnam trilogy, David Rabe's Streamers (1976) explores an archetypical theme—the rite of passage into manhood—in the lives of four young soldiers (Billy, Roger, Richie, Carlyle) who are in a period of transition from stateside Army life to Viet Nam combat. The testing ground for these young men is a barracks frequently described as 'a home,' 'my house,' or a 'happy family' where they are to learn the 'obligations' of soldiering. An essential character in their drama of manhood is the father (or father figure); and multiple examples in Streamers underscore Rabe's message about the failure of fatherhood for a Viet Nam generation.
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Blackness and the Unmanning of America in Dave Rabe's Streamers
(summary)
In the following essay, Brady discusses Rabe's use of racism and other prejudices in his plays, focusing on Streamers.
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Rabe's Streamers
(summary)
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Criticism: Hurlyburly
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Theater Chronicle
(summary)
In the following, Leiter reviews Mike Nichols's production of Hurlyburly, criticizing the nearly unanimous praise for David Rabe's play, arguing that it is overly long, unconvincing, and filled with bombastic language, while acknowledging that there is a fine idea for a play beneath the rhetoric.
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American Theater Watch, 1984-1985
(summary)
In the following essay, Weales comments on an interview with Rabe and Neil Simon on the dark comedy found in Hurlyburly.
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Theater Chronicle
(summary)
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A Question Of Mercy
(summary)
In the following review, Upchurch evaluates the production of David Rabe's A Question of Mercy at Intiman Theatre, highlighting its emotional complexity, ethical dilemmas regarding assisted suicide, and the effective yet occasionally mannered performances that explore Rabe's recurring themes of human extremes and the ambiguity between mercy and villainy.
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Criticism: Overviews And General Studies
- Further Reading