A first volume of four plays from the Amercian playwright whose play Dying City was a critical and popular success at the Royal Court Theatre in May 2006.
– Other People is set in New York among a twenty-something generation whose lives and hopes are blighted by disillusionment born of affluence and impotence in the face of the unknown. The play premièred in March 2000.
– Where Do We Live, set in a post-September 11 world, asks to what extent New York’s liberal multicultural society is under threat and how much we should care about the state in which our neighbours live.
– The Coming World moves from Shinn’s usual Manhattan environment to the coast of New England, where Dora is persuaded, against her better judgement, to help her ex, Ed, in a desperate attempt to escape from spiralling debt. Produced at the Soho Theatre in 2001.
– Dying City shifts between 2004 and 2005 – the eve of one brother’s departure for Iraq and the day that his twin brother visits his now widowed sister-in-law. The play premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in May 2006 to great critical acclaim.
The books also features an introduction by the author.