Witness (play)

Witness
Written by	Terrence McNally
Date premiered	November 21, 1968
Place premiered	Off-Broadway
Original language	English
Genre	one-act play

Witness is a one-act play by Terrence McNally which opened Off-Broadway at the Gramercy Arts Theatre on November 21, 1968, ^[1] and closed on January 26, 1969. ^[2]

Production

Witness premiered Off-Broadway at the Gramercy Arts Theatre in 1968. It starred James Coco, Sally Kirkland, Richard Marr, and Joe Ponazecki, and was paired with another McNally play, Sweet Eros . The production ran through January 26, 1969. ^[3]

Witness is one of McNally's earlier plays and received mixed reviews. ^{[4] [5]}

Overview

The play depicts a man who is planning to assassinate the President of the United States from the window of a building, all the while keeping a gagged and bound victim as a witness to his sanity. ^[6] One of the play's major themes is loneliness. ^[5]

References

1. Raymond-Jean Frontain (October 4, 2019). The Theater of Terrence McNally: Something about Grace. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 328–. ISBN   978-1-68393-216-1.
2. Burns Mantle; John Arthur Chapman; Garrison P. Sherwood (1969). Burns Mantle Yearbook. Dodd, Mead.Page.436
3. "'Sweet Eros' Listing" Internet Off-Broadway Database, accessed August 21, 2015
4. "OCC Traces McNally from Witness to Dunelawn, Los Angeles Times, February 10, 1999
5. Zinman, Toby Silverman. Terrence McNally, A Casebook, Edited by Toby Silverman Zinman, Taylor & Francis, 1997, p. 30
6. The Guide to World Drama: Witness, by Terrence McNally

Further reading

• Terrence McNally : 15 short plays, Terrence McNally, Smith and Kraus, Lyme, NH, c1994, ISBN   1-880399-34-2

External links

• Witness at the Internet off-Broadway Database