OMMMMMM. A Collection of Plays and Monologues by Hugh Fox. (World Audience, Inc.) 25 Sickles St. Suite 6E NY, NY 10040) http://worldaudience.org
It seems that every time I turn my head there is a new book by Hugh Fox. Hugh Fox, an icon of the small press movement, has recently published a memoir, “Way, Way Off the Road…” ( Ibbetson Street), a new book of poetry to be released by Higganum Hill, and now World Audience Inc, has published a collection of his plays and monologues.
Fox who is a poet, scholar and critic has ambitions as a playwright as well. The plays in this collection aren’t your standard Arthur Miller or Thornton Wilder fare. They are more like Samuel Beckett on acid. Fox writes the way he talks: a rapid fire stream-of-consciousness, full of anecdotes, sometimes full-of-it, and arcane esoteric references from his seventy-five eclectic years.
My friend the poet/vocalist Lo Galluccio told me about a play he sent to her “Swing Lo” with the female protagonist fashioned (sort of) after her. Leave it to Fox to write a play having a man with prostate cancer and a woman with ovarian cancer meet cute in a café at Beau Pere in the south of France. There is no Starbuck’s-lite banter in this work. Both Lo and her perspective suitor “Guy” chat about primeval forests, the Roman Empire, the meaning of meaning, oh—and of course -- sex. Here Lo espouses her views of God and creation:
“only let me tell you, there’s no one in the heavens, no one created us or anything else, it all just happened., all the rest is pure invention. (All lights go off.) Everything has to have a beginning? No beginning, it just happens! All the intention of God. The Gods. As if he just always was. Nothing to do with us. Creator out of nothing. At the same time it couldn’t have always BEEN either, it had to begin…”
Fox also includes some monologues in the collection. World Audience is a new small press enterprise based in NYC, founded by playwright, poet and writer M. Stefan Strozier. They are bringing out a consistent line of interesting books and journals—check them out!
Ibbetson Update/ Doug Holder
