Of All the Nerve

The "Critical Performance" series pairs a performance artist or playwright with a critical theorist in a dialogue aimed to elucidate both disciplines. This volume focuses on Deb Margolin, one of the three founding members of the American performance troupe Split Britches.

."..has a succinct sort of charm...both aims [critical intro to artist and scholarly intro to field] are fulfilled in this wonderfully written book." The Drama Review, 1/03, "New York-based performance artist Margolin isn't nearly as well known as such more outrageous, taboo-flouting peers....That is a shame because Margolin creates intelligent, incisive, richly textured pieces that put the often subliterate work of higher-profile artists to shame. She began her career in the early '80s, writing material for the feminist troupe Split Britches, making a name for angry but intensely funny deconstructions of the world. By the early '90s, she was on her own, with status in the downtown scene, regularly receiving kudos in the Village Voice and the rest of the New York press. Of All the Nerve includes the scripts of seven solo shows. The title piece, a wonderful, whimsical meditation on the nature of performance and a performer's life in New York, combines with the others to reveal Margolin's full range. The scripts are accompanied by essays and commentaries by Lynda Hart that...make quite a contrast to Margolin's accessible, carefully crafted writing." Booklist