CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

The Play Truly is the Thing

Cover art for the book Last Radiance: Radical Lives, Bright Deaths by Karen Malpede – Fair Use

Karen Malpede is the author of one of the most important books on US theater published in the last seventy years. Titled People’s Theatre in Amerika, its discussion of radical theater in the United States is as revolutionary as the dramatic works being discussed. Her work was a major influence on subsequent politically and artistically radical theater in the wake of its publication in 1973. She went on to write several plays, articles and other theater pieces. In addition, she continues to organize against the capitalist state, its wars and other transgressions. Malpede’s recently published memoir Last Radiance: Radical Lives, Radical Deaths is a personal reflection on her life, with a special emphasis on her time in the 1970s and her decades-long relationship with actor, producer and director George Bartenieff.

It is a life that is simultaneously adventurous, rebellious, romantic and ultimately fantastic. The reader accompanies Malpede as she lives and works with the avant-garde troupe that was the Living Theatre’s Julian Beck and Judith Malina. The experimental nature of the Living Theatre’s work is discussed in terms of its effect on the cultural world and the actors themselves. Police actions against its perceived........

© CounterPunch