Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on April 15, 2015.
Wallace Shawn, along with Deborah Eisenberg, read from his play, The Designated Mourner, and then joined in conversation with Michael Silverblatt. This event was part of the Lannan Literary series.
Wallace Shawn, playwright, actor, screenwriter, and essayist has said, “I don’t know about you, but I only have one life, and I don’t want to spend it in a sewer of injustice.” Best known for his roles in My Dinner with André and as Vizzini in The Princess Bride, Shawn also has had an illustrious career in theater, both as an actor and writer. His plays include Grasses of a Thousand Colors and The Designated Mourner, described by The Times (London) as “…highly unconventional, much concerned with matters of politics, culture and human significance.”
Shawn has written on subjects such as war, money, sex, and aesthetics. In his collection entitled Essays: Wallace Shawn, he writes, “Every once in a while, though, I like to take a break from fantasy land, and I go off to the place called Reality for a brief vacation.”
In this episode he is introduced by Michael Silverblatt and then read from his work along with Deborah Eisenberg. The companion Conversation episode may be found here.
You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also listen to the audio recording of this event there.
Additional photos of this event are available on Flickr.
