We are, unfortunately, coming to know terrorism, in all its various forms, only too well. Whatever its target, whatever its source — domestic, Muslim, Irish, Basque, or other — the roots of terrorism are in the heart.

A LOUD NOISE IN A PUBLIC PLACE (© 1993) spans four decades in the life of George Metesky. In this epic vaudeville, George is an Everyman figure who takes on the established power structure in a quixotic quest for justice and, despite repeated betrayals, rebuffs and indignities, never gives up in his relentlessly determined though monstrously misguided battle for fair play.

George Metesky's acts were the manifestation of a profound alienation, the desperate last resort of a man powerless in the face of overwhelming and indifferent power. Ultimately, the play poses the question, What is the proper response to, and is there an antidote for the dehumanization and depersonalization of life in industrial/post-industrial society?

A LOUD NOISE IN A PUBLIC PLACE © has received readings at the Matrix Theater in L.A. (directed by Joel Zwick, with Andrew Robinson as George, Arman Shimmerman as the Newsie, and Wayne Tippett as the Foreman/Editor/Police Chief), and the New Stage Theatre in Jackson, Miss. (1994-95 Eudora Welty New Play Series). The play was performed in a staged reading at the 2001-02 Playwrights Festival at River Stage in Sacramento, directed by Frank Condon.

You can hear a selection of songs from A LOUD NOISE IN A PUBLIC PLACE © by clicking on the titles below. The music parallels the chronology of the action: the songs are not show tunes; rather, each number is in a musical style of the era in which it occurs in the story.