YA The play opens with Frankie on the phone with his brother Jake, who claims to have killed his wife, Beth. Next, the lights come up on a hospital room where Beth lies, bandaged, aphasic, and confused. Alternating the action between platforms on either side of the stage where Beth s and Jake s families live, Shepard exposes the secrets of sordid pasts of insanity, alcoholism, and alienation. High-school theater students should find a number of short scenes suitable for two-person dialogues. Props and costumes would not be needed for classroom readings. A short radio monologue by Shepard and Joseph Chaikin, The War in Heaven, is included in the last 19 pages of the book. Music notes, a set description, and stage directions accompany the dialogue. Alice Conlon, University of Houston