Dirty Story (play)

Template:Italic title Template:Use mdy dates Dirty Story is a 2003 play by John Patrick Shanley. It allegorically presents the political relationship between Israel and Palestine as a sexual, sadomasochistic relationship between a man and a woman. This turbulent relationship is refereed by a gun toting, cigarette selling American cowboy and his snide British side-kick.

It premiered in 2003,<ref name="Brantley"/><ref name="Haberman"/><ref name="TheaterMania"/> and was revived in 2012.<ref name="Gallaher">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Crosscut"/> It was published in 2008.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Reception

A review in The New York Times called it "appallingly entertaining".<ref name="Brantley">Template:Cite news</ref> Another review in The New York Times wrote that "The play's strength lies in Mr. Shanley's keen ear for each side's stereotypes, both of itself and of the other."<ref name="Haberman">Template:Cite news</ref>

A review on TheaterMania wrote that "By play's end, the dialogue has devolved into baldly polemical statements; each actor is nothing more than a mouthpiece for a political position, and there is no sense of character remaining. This may have been the playwright's intention, but it's a losing strategy."<ref name="TheaterMania">Template:Cite news</ref>

A negative review on Crosscut.com wrote "In the end, though, it’s hard to know what the point of Dirty Story is."<ref name="Crosscut">Template:Cite news</ref>