From the prize-winning fiction writer Richard Bausch ("A master of the
novel as well as the story . . . Effortlessly engaging" --Sven Birkerts,
The New York Times), a sharp, affecting, masterly new novel about a
close-knit theater community in Memphis and one turbulent,
transformative production of King Lear.
As renovations begin at the Shakespeare Theater of Memphis, life for the
core members of the company seems to be falling into disarray. Their
trusted director has just retired, and theater manager Thaddeus
Deerforth--staring down forty and sensing a rift growing slowly between
himself and his wife, Gina--dreads the arrival of an imperious,
inscrutable visiting director. Claudette, struggling to make ends meet
as an actor and destabilized by family troubles, is getting frequent
calls from her ex-boyfriend--and also the narcissistic, lecherous
television actor who has been recruited to play King Lear in their fall
production.
Also invited to the cast is Malcolm Ruark, a disgraced TV anchor
muddling through the fallout of a scandal involving his underaged
niece--and suddenly in an even more precarious situation when the same
niece, now eighteen, is cast to play Cordelia. As tensions onstage and
off build toward a breaking point, the bonds among the intimately drawn
characters are put to extraordinary tests--and the fate of the theater
itself may even be on the line.
Deftly weaving together the points of view of Thaddeus, Claudette, and
Malcolm, and utterly original in its incorporation of Shakespeare's
timeless drama, Playhouse is an unforgettable story of men and women,
human frailty, art, and redemption--a work of inimitable imaginative
prowess by one of our most renowned storytellers.
