Not So Bullshit Nights and Days in Not So Suck City

In 2004, my Phoenix colleague Mike Miliard wrote a great piece about Massachusetts native Nick Flynn, and Flynn's memoir: Another Bullshit Night in Suck City (WW Norton, 2004). Flynn's first full-length play, Alice Invents A Little Game and Alice Always Wins was published by Faber & Faber this month, and I had the chance to read it over the weekend. These days, Flynn's a part-time (upstate) New Yorker, and the play takes place on the streets of New York City, where four (strange) strangers meet on the sidewalk during a blackout. It's funny, quirky, short, and smart, with dark undertones (rather like Flynn himself -- well, I'm not sure about the short part). I'll look forward to seeing it staged around here someday soon. It would be especially cool if Flynn's partner, actress Lili Taylor, could reprise her role as Alice, which she played when the show was being workshopped in New York.