(#159937) THE UNSEEN HAND AND OTHER PLAYS. Sam Shepard, professional name of Samuel Shepard Rogers III.

THE UNSEEN HAND AND OTHER PLAYS. Indianapolis, New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., [1972]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Six early plays by "the greatest American playwright of his generation" (New York magazine) on themes of ignorance, alienation, oppression, motivation and "human societies, particularly their dangerous, insidious, and seductive tendency to mold and control human minds. 'The Unseen Hand' takes place after 'The Revolution' in a surrealistic nightmare society. Here is Nogoland, ruled absolutely and effectively by an unseen, anonymous, totally emotionless force that controls its citizens completely and effectively through an excruciating painful mind torture. Against this Kafkaesque environment Mr. Shepard sets three brothers, old-style 'desperadoes' from the Wild West who have been summoned out of the nineteenth century by the single individual who is trying to throw off the yoke of his inhuman oppressors" (publisher's blurb). "The Holy Ghostly" involves "a confrontation between father and son, the father long dead yet living on mechanically, the no-longer-human end-product of his environment" (ibid.). "Shepard's plays are chiefly known for their bleak, poetic, often surrealist elements, black humor, and rootless characters living on the outskirts of American society ... Shepard's early science fiction play 'The Unseen Hand' (1969) would influence Richard O'Brien's stage musical 'The Rocky Horror Show'" (Wikipedia). A very good copy in very good dust jacket with wear at edges. (#159937).

Price: $35.00

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