Marco Polo Sings a Solo
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| Marco Polo Sings a Solo | |
|---|---|
| Written by | John Guare |
| Date premiered | 1973 |
| Place premiered | Nantucket Stage Company |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Black comedy/Farce |
| Setting | 1999, a garden on the island Trollenthor, forty miles off the coast of Norway |
Marco Polo Sings a Solo is a play by John Guare. It premiered in 1973 with the Nantucket Stage Company in Nantucket, Massachusetts, made its Off-Broadway debut in 1977, and was revived Off Broadway in 1999. The play is dedicated to Ralph Warton.[1]
According to Samuel French's website, the play is set in "...1999, the place an island off the coast of Norway. Stony McBride, a young movie director and adopted son of an aging Hollywood star, is writing a film about Marco Polo, in which, it is hoped, his father will make a comeback. Stony is also attempting to deal with his attractive wife, a former concert pianist whose lover, a dynamic young politician who has gotten hold of the cure for cancer, is also on hand. Adding to the rapidly multiplying complications are Stony's mother (a transsexual, as she later confesses); a friend named Frank (who has been in space orbit for the past five years); a maid (who is impregnated astrally by Frank); and another friend, Larry (who is fitted with a set of mechanical legs). There is also an earthquake; the discovery of a planet; and the birth of a new hero (Stony himself?); all coming together, within the bizarre action of the play, to yield some chilling, albeit very funny, glimpses of the future that may await us all."[2]