From Library Journal
Guare is perhaps best known for his award-winning dramas Six Degrees of Separation and House of Blue Leaves. Lydie Breeze, a two-play, six-hour cycle, represents an extensive reworking of two earlier plays first produced in 1982. Called a "theatrical equivalent of a 19th-century novel" by the author, this work is set at a Nantucket commune established by four seekers who attempt to create a better world from the ashes of the Civil War. Their idealism and its eventual corruption may be seen as an allegory of American life. This saga abounds with Guare's absurd humor and makes for challenging drama. Recommended for larger drama collections in academic and public libraries. Howard Miller, St. Louis, MO Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Guare's plays are customarily both a pleasure to read and good theater--a trick he manages by balancing the demands of literature and of drama. In his well-structured, well-written plays, there are wonderful wordplay and characters as compelling and real as those in a good novel. Yet Guare never loses sight of the obligation of drama to be, because of the requirements of performance, more efficient than novels. In the epic, two-part Lydie Breeze, he packs 20 years into approximately five hours of stage time, and you never feel he has stinted on storytelling. His account of a likable but misguided group of Civil War veterans, who want to create a perfect society but run afoul of human nature, is spare but never anorexic. Like a Zen painter, Guare delivers just enough information to keep an audience engaged and drive the story forward. Consisting of two previously produced full-length plays, Gardenia and Lydie Breeze, welded into a seamless whole, this new Lydie Breeze is wonderful theater and satisfying, compelling reading. Jack Helbig
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Book Description
An extensive reworking of two earlier (1981) plays by John Guare about a nineteenth-century commune in Nantucket, Lydie Breeze is a two-play, six-hour cycle about four seekers who come to the island to create a special model for a better world in the ashes of the Civil War and end up as a model for the corruption of twentieth-century idealism. The result is an almost surreal saga of American life, with allegorical meditations on the contradictions and interconnectedness of all things and the chaotic nature of the universe.


About the Author
John Guare is the author of numerous plays, including: Six Degrees of Separation (New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best play), and The House of Blue Leaves (New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best play). His film work includes the Oscar-nominated Atlantic City, (New York, Los Angeles, and National Film Critics Circle Awards for best screenplay.)

FROM THE PUBLISHER

An extensive reworking of two earlier (1981) plays by John Guare about a nineteenth-century commune in Nantucket, Lydie Breeze is a two-play, six-hour cycle about four seekers who come to the island to create a special model for a better world in the ashes of the Civil War and end up as a model for the corruption of twentieth-century idealism. The result is an almost surreal saga of American life, with allegorical meditations on the contradictions and interconnectedness of all things and the chaotic nature of the universe.

Author Biography: John Guare is the author of numerous plays, including: Six Degrees of Separation (New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best play), and The House of Blue Leaves (New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best play). His film work includes the Oscar-nominated Atlantic City, (New York, Los Angeles, and National Film Critics Circle Awards for best screenplay.)

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal