This script of an action-filled play about John Brown that was never performed on stage raises profound questions about the role of violence in the crusade against slavery. The drama is compelling--no surprise, since one of the playwrights was Orson Welles, master of stage, screen, and radio, who uses this medium to illustrate a key event that brought on the Civil War.
- James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom,
Those of us who love Orson Welles owe a large debt of gratitude to Todd Tarbox for continuing to fill in the amazing puzzle pieces of Welles’ extraordinary creative life. That Orson was able to write as mature a piece as Marching Song at the age of 17 defies belief. But then he did make Citizen Kane at 25, not to mention all the masterpieces that followed, including The Other Side of the Wind, shown for the first time 40 years after he shot it, and still it seems ahead of its time. But even from the grave, Orson is unstoppable.
- Peter Bogdanovich, Director of <I>The Last Picture Show<I>,
A must-have for any serious Welles fan, Marching Song: A Play is bookended by two illuminating essays by Tarbox. [It] will be devoured by those looking for insight into the mind of one of the most creative men of the 20th century.
- Ray Kelly, Wellesnet.com,
A significant cultural event. . . One of the first things that strikes the reader about Marching Song is that it is more advanced in its approach—one might say, far more advanced—than virtually anything else in the American theater in the 20th century—including the efforts, as sincere and serious as they certainly were, of Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller, Clifford Odets, Tennessee Williams, William Inge, Edward Albee, etc. Welles’ play owes far more to Shakespeare and other epic traditions than it does to the cramped psychological drama so beloved by American playwrights.
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