Three Major Plays: Tattoos, School Play, Tyrannos

These three contemporary plays by the father of ethnographic burlesque address human relations in the context of changing American social mores and political realities. Tattoos witnesses a father hitting on his son's wife while the son if off at bootcamp. School Play tells of an oppositional yet strangely connective relationship between a young black African male and his middle-aged, unsuccessful white college instructor. Tyrannos weaves elements of Oedipus Rex into a darkly comic tale of modern authoritarianism. Of William Young's Blue and Other Stories, Kirkus Reviews writes, "A richly textured, engrossing collection of tales about people discovering who and why they love."