Three Brutal Comedies, by Wendy Hammond
"...my struggle to understand and then to heal evil." (Wendy Hammond)
March 10, 1990: I saw, The Ghostman, by Wendy Hammond.1 The play is riveting. At the time, I had to go into freeze mode because it cut too close to home. My reaction is part of my journal entries included in Paperdolls.
Two months after the release of Paperdolls: Healing from Sexual Abuse in Mormon Neighborhoods, Wendy Hammond was teaching a playwriting class at "Writers at Work" in Park City. My co-author and I went to Park City and listened to Wendy and 3 other actors read, Three Brutal Comedies.
Art is the thread that ties us, inspires us, and elevates us. There have been a few times in my life that Art has touched me so deeply that my life was altered because of it. Watching Wendy Hammond, Brent Mubas, Marcia Miller, David McCullough perform Three Brutal Comedies2 was one of those times.
Unbeknownst to Wendy, Writers at Work, sold recordings of the reading. I bought the cassettes. Recently, I converted the recordings to digital format. I sent them to Wendy. I asked her if I could share these with you, she graciously granted permission.
When introducing this reading, Wendy Hammond says:
"I'm obsessed with what causes evil and what heals it. I often find myself using the family as a canvas because I find that the dynamics that happen in the family are reflected in the world at large. For instance, I don't think Saddam Hussein was born that way. We're going to read three one-act plays which reflect this obsession today, my struggle to understand and then to heal evil. They're absurdist plays which means that I've played with the ground rules of reality, so they're not naturalistic worlds."
I pray one day, we will be able to heal evil.
Here is a reading of Three Brutal Comedies by Wendy Hammond. Read by Wendy Hammond, Brent Mubas, Marcia Miller, David McCullough. Writers at Work, Park City, Utah, June 1992: