pretty heavyhanded but who am I to fault mr Vonnegut for spreading peace and love on earth and beyond? he even admits in the foreword here that the ending isn't that great (he's right) because he just didn't want to write an ending. must admit that I got a little choked up at one point but I'm not brave enough to reveal when exactly that was. amazing title. maybe his best, title-wise. ✌

This is the only play Kurt Vonnegut wrote. I hadn't heard of it before, but read it because my son is going to be in the play this fall.

The story is a take-off on Odysseus and the Odyssey. In this case it's the cruel, violent Harold Ryan who returns home after being missing for eight years. His wife, Penelope, has believed him to be dead and has accepted the attentions of two suitors; Dr. Norbert Woodly (my son's role) and Herb Shuttle, a vacuum cleaner salesman. Their son, Paul, never believed his father was dead and has tried to discourage the suitors.

As Penelope says in the opening line, "This is a simple minded play about men who enjoy killing - and those who don't".

Harold says "I have killed perhaps two hundred men in wars of various sorts....I have killed thousands of other animals as well - for sport".

And Woodly, "I am a physician, a healer. I find it disgusting and frightening that a killer should still be a respected member of society. Gentleness must replace violence everywhere, or we are doomed".

Much of the play is funny, but like a lot of Vonnegut's work, has a strong anti-war, anti-violence message. So it goes.

I was at the Broadway flea market last weekend and happened across this book at one of the stands, completely unaware that Vonnegut had written a play. It was a satire of Odysseus’ return home set in “modern” times, and it was fantastic. I really enjoyed reading this one, it was dark and funny, super entertaining.

Second reading.
Not his best but quirky enough to be thoroughly enjoyable.

God Bless You Mr Vonnegut.

So it goes.

This book caught me at the perfect time and was exactly what I was wanting. I'm a big fan of reading plays - love the format.

Anywho, MACHISMO! this is a wonderful tale of a ultra-maculine father returning home after 8 years. He was presumed dead and arrives home to see his wife with suitors. Shenanigans ensue.

I loved the ending, the banter, and the on the nose and over the top moral messaging.

If you enjoy reading plays I would definitely reccomend this simple and direct one!

The inscription on my frontispiece:

"Good intentions guided by ignorance and blasphemy leads only to frustration and futility.
Not worth the read.
CB"

I can't actually recall Vonnegut discussing these issues before. He's talked about "War is hell" and "So it goes" quite a bit, but he very rarely discusses gender issues and how much society changed during and just after the war.

Despite what the guy who wrote that inscription thought, I still thought it was worth the read.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgYkR...

Not only did I read this play, I saw it preformed lived at the University of Maine in Portland -- which was done with a new ending written for the play by Mr. Vonnegut himself.
. . .

In the foreward, Vonnegut said that this was his first time time ever writing a villain, and maybe his discomfort with that idea shows a little in this play? Unfortunately, this play ends up being more about the male characters—Harold, Looseleaf, Shuttle, Paul, and Wooley all vibrate with energy, coming off the page—while the female character, Penelope, is mostly letting things happen to her and grossly overshadowed by the men around her. Somehow the overarching conflict in this play is war versus peace and there's no clear winner? Even as the promoters of war (Harold and Looseleaf) are presented as basically grotesque. Anyway, it was fine! (I wasn't bored)

Very weird, but good. What I’d expect from Vonnegut.

One of Vonnegut's only plays this playwright edition of "Happy Birthday, Wanda June" is tough to review. I enjoyed the dialogue between characters, as well as the heaven sequences with Wanda June who's killed on her birthday, her cake ends up in Penelope's (one of our main characters) house and a Nazi who was killed by Penelope's estranged husband Harold ( who's one of Vonnegut's more loathsome characters). Unfortunately the story is a bit overloaded with too many characters and the main story dealing with male machismo and it's increasing extinction in our modern world is a little bland by Vonnegut standards. Also in a play format you lose out on the writing prose of Vonnegut which makes a lot of his work immensely more enjoyable.

I heard that Vonnegut wrote this play with the part of Hemingway he detested in mind: his killing of big game animals for fun. It's an interesting place to begin and like I said earlier there are things to love in this play, trademark Vonnegut dialogue and humour with a thin line of impending violence running underneath it all. Wanda June is afloat throughout most of the play and her connection to the main action is strenuous at best but I enjoyed the character of Penelope, it's no secret that Vonnegut struggled to write fully fleshed out female characters but Penelope is a strong, intelligent women, who doesn't take shit from anyone.

I'll end my review with my new favourite Vonnegut line: Go take a flying fuck at the moon.

The last time I read a play that made me laugh at the end and say wow, it was Beckett's Waiting for Godot. Well played Mr Vonnegut, well played...

Terrible.