Synopsis
The Last Yankee - STUDENT EDITION
Published by Methuen
2 Male 2 Female
It features an extensive introduction by Katherine Egerton which includes a chronology of Miller's life and times, a summary of the plot and commentary on the characters, themes, language, context and production history of the play
Together with over twenty questions for further study and detailed notes on words and phrases from the text, this is the definitive edition of the play
In the waiting room of a State mental institution sit two men, there to visit their wives who are both suffering from depression
Frick, a no-nonsense successful businessman is shocked to find that the younger man, Leroy Hamliton, though descended from one of the Founding Fathers of the USA is, by profession a carpenter and a fairly contented one to boot
As we meet their respective wives, the play opens up some of the psycho-moral paradoxes haunting contemporary life.
The Last Yankee sees Miller exploring aspects of the American Dream through the lives of four characters who question and grapple with definitions of success, health and fulfillment
Described by Miller as 'a comedy about a tragedy' the one act play highlights conflicts between men and women, between the working class and the capitalist businessman and between interior and exterior
REVIEWS
"'The Last Yankee reasserts Miller's unquestionable dominance of American drama ... No other American playwright has had his range of experience and feeling; none has combined his magisterial moral judgement with his warm and forgiving sense of humour and his ability to inhabit completely, like Shakespeare or Ibsen, every character he creates ... Miller writes with a sense of pain and laughter, with an understanding of the heart's endless struggle with the mind, which is characteristic of a writer on an unending journey of discovery'" ~ Sunday Times
THIS IS THE STUDENT EDITION - for the DPS ACTING EDITION
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