Six plays /

A year after Romulus Linney, Seventeen Short Plays (CH, Apr'93), this able playwright here offers half a dozen more plays (three full length). The dramas, less experimental than some in Seventeen Short Plays, reveal the broad range of their author's abilities. Two are historical, two reflect Linney's southern Appalachian background, two focus on the lives of artists. Each represents a remarkable achievement. The dialogue is crisp and direct. Linney's characterization is convincing and consistent. His social commentary, particularly in plays like 2 and Heathen Valley, is incisive, often chilling. In 2, by spotlighting Hermann Goering's trial at Nuremberg, Linney holds a mirror to American racism: Goering's American captors differ little from the Nazis in their racial aversions; only their focus is different. Even in disgrace, Goering emerges as proud, intelligent, and able, but manipulative through to the end. Childe Byron employs surreal time in ways reminiscent of Linney's experimental plays. Linney's position as a major, remarkably versatile, American dramatist seems assured. These six plays provide additional and convincing documentation to justify that position. Strongly recommended. Undergraduate; professional; general. R. B. Shuman; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign