This image is the cover for the book Visiting Edna and Good for Otto

Visiting Edna and Good for Otto

Two plays exploring the struggle of mental illness by the Tony Award–winning “giant of American theater” and author of Hurlyburly (Chicago Tribune).

Good for Otto, which premiered in October 2015 at the Gift Theatre in Chicago, is a “sprawling drama of mental illness” in which “Mr. Rabe digs into his subject with a depth that almost feels bottomless.” Drawing on material from Undoing Depression by psychotherapist Richard O’Connor, it explores the lives of a therapist and his many patients, all trying to navigate personal trauma (Charles Isherwood, The New York Times).

Visiting Edna, which premiered in September 2016 at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, is a drama of “deeply searing power” about the bond between mother and son. As Edna faces a short future plagued by her many illnesses—and a cancer that looms so large it becomes another character—she and her adult son struggle to communicate about their shared past as they contemplate the future (Variety).

Taken together, the plays offer a satisfying glimpse into “Rabe’s theatrical universe . . . at once vivid and mysterious, a pageant and a puzzle” of contemporary American life (John Lahr, The New Yorker).

“Many would list [Rabe] among the very greatest of living playwrights.” —Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

David Rabe

David Rabe is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. He is the author of numerous dramatic works, including Sticks and Bones, which won the Tony Award for Best Play, and The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, which won the Obie Award for distinguished playwriting. He is also the recipient of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award, the Variety Poll Award, the National Institute and American Academy Award in Literature, and the PEN/Laura Pels Award for Master American Dramatist. He lives in Connecticut.

Grove Press