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Also by Ethan Coen:

Almost an Evening, April 2009
Paperback
The Drunken Driver Has the Right of Way, April 2009
Paperback

ALMOST AN EVENING
By: Ethan Coen

Three Rivers Press
April 2009
On Sale: April 7, 2009
80 pages
ISBN: 030746041X
EAN: 9780307460417
Paperback
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Non-Fiction

Three satiric plays by Oscar-winning screenwriter Ethan Coen

Raising Arizona, Fargo, No Country for Old Men, Burn After Reading–the Coen brothers’ films are some of the most critically acclaimed and iconic of our time. Now, one half of the duo, Ethan Coen, adds playwriting to his eclectic bio. In these three short plays that ran to sold-out audiences Off-Broadway in 2008, the theme is hell–both on earth and in the hereafter.

In “Waiting,” a man faces an uncertain future in an uncertain location that seems to be some kind of waiting room. The anxiety and despair hark back to dramas of the fifties–Sartre, Beckett, Pinter.

“Four Benches” depicts an unlikely meeting in a steam room between a straight-talking Texan and an uptight Brit. Both men learn from the encounter, though only one survives it.

In “Debate,” the cantankerous god of the Old Testament roundly abuses the mealymouthed god of the New. His profanity and ill humor receive a startling comeuppance, and further reversals and changes of point of view lead to a denouement that is no more preposterous than anything else in the play.

Clever, provocative, and as engaging as the best fiction, these plays showcase yet another talent of one of our most celebrated contemporary writers.

Media Buzz

All Things Considered - April 16, 2009