Death and Taxes

Hydriotaphia and Other Plays

Tony Kushner

• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• Year: 1998
• Print ISBN: 9781559361569
• eBook ISBN: 9781559366403
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Drama
• Index: Literature

"This is an odd assemblage of plays, for which gathering-together there is no overarching thematic justification. Because several of the plays deal with death, and one of the death-plays deals as well with money, and the last play deals with taxation, we're calling the book Death & Taxes. But all plays, directly or indirectly, are about death and taxes, so this title explains little..." –Tony Kushner

This stunning new collection by Tony Kushner, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Angels in America, showcases his masterful explorations of form and style. A rich and vibrant collection from one of our greatest American playwrights, Death & Taxes includes the following treasure trove of works:

In Reverse Transcription: Six Playwrights Bury a Seventh, six playwrights come together to bury their contemporary and friend, Ding. They discuss and brood on their lives, writings, and loves. Theatre critic Dr. David Nowlan calls Reverse Transcription “rich in allusion, elegant in language and satirically funny” (Irish Times).

Hydriotaphia or The Death of Dr. Browne begins at one man’s deathbed and becomes an epic farce spanning Heaven and Earth.
“Karl Marx said that history occurs first as tragedy and then as farce. In Hydriotaphia, Tony Kushner says that history is tragedy and farce at once. Ben Jonson meets Bertolt Brecht in this brilliantly funny and dark knockabout play of the rise of the entrepreneurial spirit. As in all of Kushner’s work, the play teems with ideas.” –Robert Hass, former U.S. Poet Laureate
“The play flourishes Kushner’s trademark ability to mix up wildly diverse tonalities and ideas — bawdy humor, theological and class warfare debate, fourth-wall-breaking, dizzying monologues, fantasy and domestic intrigue all whirl like a juggler’s pins.” -Variety

Inspired by Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 75,” Terminating or Sonnet LXXV “is a delirious, scatological encounter between a psychotherapist, her madly besotted patient and their lovers, which contains some dizzyingly fine writing” (Variety).
“Tony Kushner at his most fanciful and eclectic ... fierce, strange and clever theatre.” –Evening Standard

East Coast Ode to Howard Jarvis is a one-man show featuring two dozen characters’ involvement in a tax evasion scheme.
“Surreal, confrontational and funny.” –Prospect Magazine (UK)
"There is such clarity conveyed not just in the language but in the rhythm and the nuance. Ideas and phrases honey drip from the script. Listening is an indulgence.” –The Stage

Notes on Akiba has been performed at The Jewish Museum and other venues during Passover. Fictionalized versions of playwright Tony Kushner and director Michael Mayer reimagine aspects of Jewish history, tradition and myth.

G. David Schine in Hell was originally published in New York Times Magazine. Featuring an appearance by Kushner’s fictionalized Roy Cohn of Angels in America, this short play revisits Cohn and several other American Conservatives of the McCarthy era as they adjust to an afterlife in Hell.

Hydriotaphia OR

The Death of Dr. Browne

An Epic Farce about Death
and Primitive Capital
Accumulation

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This play is dedicated
to the memory of
Dr. Max Deutscher
1915–1980
scar-tough & skinless,
wrathful & wonderful . . .

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Production History

Hydriotaphia or The Death of Doctor Browne received its first production in June 1987 at HOME for Contemporary Theater and Art in New York City. It was produced by Heat & Light Co., Inc. It was directed by the author and assisted directed by Michael Mayer. Lights were designed by Steven Rosen, costumes were by Priscilla Stampa, sets were by committee and exigency and Lesley Kushner. The music was by Mel Marvin. And the cast was as follows:

SIR THOMAS BROWNE	Stephen Spinella
HIS SOUL	Maria Makis
DAME DOROTHY BROWNE	Roberta Levine
BABBO	Priscilla Stampa
MACCABEE	Peter Guttmacher
DR. EMIL SCHADENFREUDE	Ümit Celebi
DR. LEVITICUS DOGWATER	Lee Grober
LEONARD PUMPKIN	Tim White
THE ABBESS OF X	Alexandra Rambusch
DOÑA ESTRELITA	Carmalita Fuentes
SARAH	Cheryl Thornton
MARY	Kimberly T. Flynn
RUTH	Camryn Manheim
DEATH	Sam Calandrino

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Hydriotaphia or The Death of Doctor Browne was produced by the Graduate Acting Program of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in April 1997. The director was Michael Wilson; sets were designed by Michael Lapthorn, costumes were by Theresa Squire, the lighting design was by Lap-Chi Chu, sound design was by Darron L. West, the composer was Mel Marvin and the stage manager was Stacy P. Hughes. The cast was as follows:

SIR THOMAS BROWNE	Jason Butler Harner
HIS SOUL	Jeff Whitty
DAME DOROTHY BROWNE	Anita Dashiell
BABBO	Angel Desai
MACCABEE	Christian Lincoln
DR. EMIL SCHADENFREUDE	Matthew Miller
DR. LEVITICUS DOGWATER	Sam Catlin
LEONARD PUMPKIN	Tom Butler
THE ABBESS OF X	Michael Hyatt
DOÑA ESTRELITA	Teri Lamm
SARAH	Christina Apathy
MARY	Dionne Lea
RUTH	Christopher Kelly
DEATH	John Eddins

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In 1998, Hydriotaphia or The Death of Dr. Browne received a co-production by the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas (Gregory Boyd, Artistic Director; Paul R. Tetreault, Managing Director), and Berkeley Repertory Theatre in California (Tony Taccone, Artistic Director; Susan Medak, Managing Director). In April of that year the play opened at the Alley with Michael Wilson as director; Jeff Cowie was scenic and projection designer, David C. Woolard was costume designer, Michael Lincoln was the lighting designer, Joe Pino was sound designer, original music was composed by Mel Marvin and the stage manager was Kristin Fox. The cast was as follows:

SIR THOMAS BROWNE	Jonathan Hadary
HIS SOUL	Jenny Bacon
DAME DOROTHY BROWNE	Shelley Williams
BABBO	Bettye Fitzpatrick
MACCABEE	Alex Allen Morris
DR. EMIL SCHADENFREUDE	John Feltch
DR. LEVITICUS DOGWATER	Charles Dean
LEONARD PUMPKIN	Kyle Fabel
THE ABBESS OF X	Sharon Lockwood
DOÑA ESTRELITA	Annalee Jefferies
SARAH	Delia MacDougall
MARY	Moya Furlow
RUTH	Louise Chegwidden
DEATH	Paul Hope

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In September 1998 the production moved to Berkeley Repertory Theatre (Tony Taccone, Artistic Director; Susan Medak, Managing Director). Michael Wilson was production supervisor, Ethan McSweeny was the director. Scenic and projection designer was Jeff Cowie, costumes were by David C. Woolard, lighting design was by Peter Maradudin, sound design was by Matthew Spiro, original music was composed by Mel Marvin, the production stage manager was Michael Suenkel and the stage manager was Juliet N. Pokorny. The cast was as follows:

SIR THOMAS BROWNE	Jonathan Hadary
HIS SOUL	Anika Noni Rose
DAME DOROTHY BROWNE	Shelley Williams
BABBO	Sloane Shelton
MACCABEE	Rod Gnapp
DR. EMIL SCHADENFREUDE	Charles Dean
DR. LEVITICUS DOGWATER	J. R. Horne
LEONARD PUMPKIN	Hamish Linklater
THE ABBESS OF X	Sharon Lockwood
DOÑA ESTRELITA	Wilma Bonet
SARAH	Delia MacDougall
MARY	Moya Furlow
RUTH	Louise Chegwidden
DEATH	Paul Hope

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Thanks to Michael Mayer for waking the play from its long sleep, and to Zelda Fichandler for approving its first production in eleven years. Michael Wilson got it back on its feet and found its soul again. The NYU cast was magnificent, the Berkeley Rep cast was beyond heroic; the original cast performs the play nightly in my heart of hearts. I am very grateful to Stephen Spinella, Jason Butler Harner and Jonathan Hadary, my three Brownes, for their glorious incarnations of the nasty bloated logorrheic old bugger. The staff at Berkeley Rep saved my life, and are the Platonic ideal of a theater staff. Amy Potozkin and Susie Medak gracious...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Epigraph
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Reverse Transcription - Six Playwrights Bury a Seventh
• Hydriotaphia OR - The Death of Dr. Browne
• G. David Schine in Hell
• Notes on Akiba
• Terminating
• East Coast Ode to Howard Jarvis - A Little Teleplay in Tiny Monologues
• Author’s Note
• Copyright Page