Wallace Shawn, sometimes credited as Wally Shawn, is an American actor and playwright. Regularly seen on film and television, where he is usually cast as a comic character actor, he has pursued a parallel career as a playwright whose work is often dark, politically charged and controversial. He is widely known for his high-pitched nasal voice and slight lisp.
A nice tight little dystopian play that effectively satirizes liberal artists who easily compromise under authoritarian rule. Shawn is one of the delicately meanest writers in theater and this is one of his best pieces.
In the Talk House, Shawn reveals the deadly (literally) and destructive power of words in the form of harmless and common gossip between old colleagues. He forces us to swallow the dreadfulness of how we construct meaning, fear, and value through an act as careless as talking behind someone's back. In a world obsessed with buzz and clickbait news, Shawn urges us to be more critical if not more careful with what we contribute to dialogue in our daily lives.
A strong, late-career work. While Shawn doesn't cover any new thematic ground, he nonetheless treads his familiar terrain of Western civilization's almost imperceptibly slow descent into authoritarianism. "Evening" suggests that artists, despite their vaunted ideals, will no better withstand government coercion than any other democratic citizen; indeed, their penchant for self-expression at all costs may make them eagerly complicit. A play that deserves far more American productions.