Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Study Guide for Adrienne Kennedy's "Sleep Deprivation Chamber"
    A Study Guide for Adrienne Kennedy's "Sleep Deprivation Chamber"
    A Study Guide for Adrienne Kennedy's "Sleep Deprivation Chamber"
    Ebook50 pages37 minutes

    A Study Guide for Adrienne Kennedy's "Sleep Deprivation Chamber"

    By Gale and Cengage

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Adrienne Kennedy's "Sleep Deprivation Chamber," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateAug 12, 2016
    ISBN9781535833349
    A Study Guide for Adrienne Kennedy's "Sleep Deprivation Chamber"

    Read more from Gale

    Related to A Study Guide for Adrienne Kennedy's "Sleep Deprivation Chamber"

    Related ebooks

    Teaching Methods & Materials For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Study Guide for Adrienne Kennedy's "Sleep Deprivation Chamber"

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Adrienne Kennedy's "Sleep Deprivation Chamber" - Gale

      11

      Sleep Deprivation Chamber

      Adrienne Kennedy and Adam P. Kennedy

      1996

      Introduction

      Adrienne Kennedy's play Sleep Deprivation Chamber, written with her son Adam P. Kennedy, is based on a true event. One night as Adam was driving home, a policeman stopped him for having a broken taillight on his car. In the play, a similar routine traffic stop escalates alarmingly, as the young man resists the police officer's aggressive approach and eventual brutal attack.

      This confrontation is the focus of the play. Kennedy explores the event from various positions, all of them woven through surrealist dream sequences. Throughout the reenactment of this incident in the play, the young man (Teddy) and his mother (Suzanne) insist that he is innocent and that the police office is at fault. They insinuate that he was treated unfairly because he is black. The officer was white. They sense that they have little chance to win their case, but they are determined to be heard in a court of law. Although they are victorious in the end, the family suffers not only from the brutal beating but from the tension, fear, and frustration of having to defend themselves against the age-old racism they expect. They claim—the father, the mother, and the son—that they are psychologically tortured by the experience, as if they had been imprisoned in a sleep deprivation chamber.

      Sleep Deprivation Chamber had its world premiere at the Joseph Papp Public Theater in New York in 1996. It was directed by Michael Kahn and starred Trazana Beverley as Suzanne (the mother) and Kevin T. Carroll as Teddy (the son). According to critic Ben Brantley, writing for the New York Times, the play is imperfect, but it has unsettling power. Though reviews were mixed, Sleep Deprivation Chamber won the 1996 Obie Award for best play of the year.

      Author Biography

      Adrienne Kennedy, the primary author of this play, was born on September 13, 1931, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Cornell and Etta Wallace. Before Kennedy was old enough to go to school, her parents moved the family, which included her brother, Cornell, to Cleveland, Ohio, where Kennedy spent most of her childhood. She was a gifted child, learning to read before she started first grade. By the fifth grade, Kennedy had read all the books in her elementary school library. Although she was an avid reader, her interest in writing did not develop until she was in college, at the Ohio State University. Though she enjoyed her literature classes, she majored in education and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1952.

      She married Joseph Kennedy, a college boyfriend, in 1953. When he was drafted into the military and was sent to Korea, she, inspired by Tennessee Williams's works and his essays on script writing, began writing plays. After giving birth to her son Joseph, Jr., and upon her husband's return from the Korean War, Kennedy moved with her family to New York City in 1955. Searching for intellectual stimulation, Kennedy enrolled in the New School. While

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1