Wenceslas Square (play)

Wenceslas Square is a 1988 play by Larry Shue. It was presented by the New York Shakespeare Festival (Joseph Papp, Producer) at The Public Theater/Martinson Theatre Stage in New York City. Directed by Jerry Zaks, the cast comprised: Victor Garber, Jonathan Hadary, Bruce Norris (playwright) and Dana Ivey. Following its March/April 1988 New York run, the play transferred to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. for a July/August limited engagement.

Wenceslas Square
Written by	Larry Shue
Characters	The Men Vince Corey Dooley The Women
Date premiered	March 1988 (1988-03)
Place premiered	The Public Theater Martinson Theater Stage
Original language	English
Genre	Dramatic comedy
Setting	Czechoslovakia, 1974

Characters

• Narrator – other Male Characters: The Narrator is an older version of Dooley.
• Vince Corey: A Professor.
• Dooley: A Student and Photographer.
• All the Female Characters.

Production history

Chicago’s Body Politic Theatre presented the play in April/May 1989. Directed by Tom Mula, with a cast that included: Gary Houston, Jeffrey Hutchinson, Larry Brandenburg and Maureen Gallagher; Larry Shue’s “last play” was first produced in 1984, as part of the Chicago Theatre Project`s season of new plays, in the Theatre Building Chicago. Tom Mula directed that premiere, also with Gary Houston and Jeffrey Hutchinson along with Barbara E. Robertson and Rick Snyder, under the guidance of Larry Shue.

The play was presented at the Los Angeles Matrix Theatre in a July/August 1989 production. It received a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for distinguished achievement during the 1989-1990 season; honoring the play, playwright and an award to Nancy Lenehan for her performance. The cast also included: James Sloyan, Adam Arkin and Richard Murphy. It was directed by Lee Shallat Chemel.

New York City’s the Metropolitan Playhouse produced the play as part of its 1993–94 season. It was directed by David Zarko.

Cesear’s Forum, Cleveland’s minimalist theatre at Playhouse Square presented the play in a September/October 2022 production at Kennedy’s Down Under. Directed by Greg Cesear the play utilized seven actors, shifting the balance of role playing.

Critical reception

In his The New York Times review of a 1988 production at The Public Theater, Frank Rich concluded: "The result, at best sporadically funny but always warm and spirited, is hardly a profound play."

Reviewing a 1989 production at Body Politic Theatre, Diana Spinrad in Chicago Reader wrote: “Larry Shue's portrait of oppression is not shocking or revolutionary. It makes no political statement that we haven't seen many times over. But it is truthful and heartfelt, and doesn’t pretend that it’s more than it is, a haunting personal memory.”

Reviewing a 2022 production in Cesear's Forum, Cleveland Scene's Christine Howey noted the relevance of the story in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. She wrote: "In this quiet and somewhat meandering 2 1/2-hour piece, playwright Shue uses his trademark sense of humor to bring some lightness to this essentially dark story of a city gone dead."