PLAYS OF PAUL STEPHEN LIM
AVAILABLE FROM ARAN PRESS:
FIGURES IN CLAY
by Paul Stephen Lim
Cast: 3 men. Full-length in six scenes. Set: an office.
FIGURES IN CLAY is a sequel to the semi-autobiographical MOTHER TONGUE (infra). An Asian American writer and his two homosexual lovers seek the advice of a marriage counselor. One lover, a successful travel agent, is twenty years older than the writer. The other lover is twenty years younger. The dialogue overlaps and time is fluid. It is not always clear whether all three are present before the counselor at the same time. The total effect, though is character revelation-a sympathetic view of the three lovers. FIGURES IN CLAY is ideal for readers' theatre. FIGURES IN CLAY premiered as a stage reading at the Modern Language Association Convention in 1990. Book $4.00. Royalty -$30-$20.
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WOEMAN
by Paul Stephen Lim
Cast: 1 man and 5 women. Two acts. Drama. Set: a studio apartment.
WOEMAN is the tragic story of Charley Womack. He was raised by his mother, entered into a marriage with a woman who pitied more than loved him. Since his divorce, he has had a passing affair, presently, he is in love with a German lady, who he discovers doesn't fully return his affection. Everything blows up for him and he winds up in a hospital mental ward. The women in his life meet to pick over the pieces. WOEMAN was first produced at the University of Kansas in 1978 and subsequently off-Bway by the Shelter West Co. in '81. "Lim's play is rich in resonances, allusions and symbols. His sensitivity and imagination show a literary intelligence," Glenn Loney, After Dark. "A psychological whodunit...The playwright cleverly and successfully weaves the informative flashbacks...in to the present," Joanne Pottlitzer, Other Stages. "Lim has written characters of substance, depth and complexity...An emotionally exhausting study of the impact of divorce and the inevitable failure of human relationships...Riveting...A human drama that aims for the gut," John Bush Jones, The Kansas City Star. "...leaves the audience gasping," Lawrence Journal World. Book $5.00. Royalty - $35- $20.
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MOTHER TONGUE
by Paul Stephen Lim
Cast: 3 men and 4 women. Drama. Two acts. Set: Area staging.
The central conflict in MOTHER TONGUE is the internal struggle of an Asian-English professor at an American University. The memory of his Chinese mother who did not want him to become an American haunts him. "a particularly timely playIt could be an important play. In its observation of rootlessness and personal nirvana, it catches the new melting pot, where some immigrants are even strangers to the countries they left behind." -Los Angeles Times. "When East and West come together in the powerful play MOTHER TONGUE by Paul Stephen Lim, it is not so much a meeting as a merging of the best of both worlds Cleverly written, MOTHER TONGUE abounds with puns, palaver and wordy play" -Valley Star (CA). Book $5.00. Royalty $35-$20.
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FLESH, FLASH AND FRANK HARRIS
by Paul Stephen Lim
Cast: 8 men and 5 women. Two acts. Set: multi-scene, area lighting.
Frank Harris, whose autobiography was banned as pornography,
was a friend of Oscar Wilde and Bernard Shaw, and an influential London
editor. It is a story with epic range-from Ireland, to Kansas, to work on
the Brooklyn Bridge, to London society, to France, to a walkup flat in Italy.
Lim's technique is remarkable-a young, a middle-aged, and an old Frank Harris
share the stage simultaneously. "Few plays dare to pit the collective
imaginations of the audience against the singular imagination of the playwright.
The latest from Paul Stephen Lim is that particular kind of daring, provocative
playa mentally exhausted audience was left applauding. Lim has become the
most noteworthy of our regional playwrights," Michael McGrath, The
Kansas City Star. "It is worth a trip to the East Village to see Paul
Stephen Lim's lively FLESH, FLASH & FRANK HARRIS," N.Y. Theatre
Voice. Book $5.00.Royalty - $35-$20.
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HOMERICA
by Paul Stephen Lim
Cast: 9 men and 5 women. Three one acts.Comedy. Set: a basement.
Three one acts, each of which can stand on its own, but are bound by place and theme and two characters. The subject is the sexual revolution. In "Bull's Books" a bookstore closes; in "Sammy's Swingles" the place has been taken over by a singles bar. In "Mothers Superior" the bar has been converted by a group of Irish nuns into a surrogate mothers business. HOMERICA premiered at the University of Kansas in 1977 and was subsequently produced in England at Leicester University in 1983. "Outrageous satirewickedly funny," Leicester Mercury. "A freaked-out farce-a kind of 'You Can't Take It With You' as revisualized by Heoronymus Bosch," The Kansan City Times. "A dazzling, virtuoso kind of theatre! HOMERICA ultimately shows the destructive, regressive, dehumanizing effects of so-called sexual freedom with dire consequences for the entire human race. The play comes to this bleak vision through three acts, each more crazily comic than the lastpervading the whole, however, is Lim's verbal wizardry and an electrifying theatricality," John Bush Jones, Kansas City Star Magazine. "One of the most effective social dissertations of today," University Daily Kansan. Book $5.00. Royalty- $30 - $20.