Leading American playwright Sarah Ruhl’s book, divided into four parts, sees her dealing with the life versus theatre conundrum whilst she successfully combines her two  roles of being a mother and active theatre practitioner.

Ruhl is a quick witted observer of the theatre and there simply aren’t enough adjectives to describe her short, sharp, intelligent and knowledgeable treatises.

Ruhl’s articulate discourse on what constitutes great theatre demonstrates her wonderful ability to argue the finer points. She has a diverse range of original ideas covering many topics. She certainly knows her craft and raises important issues within the book both on a personal and professional level.

Part One of Ruhl’s book conveys her humour and creative sensibility which shows her theatrical background. It finds Ruhl contemplating On Writing Plays and being a mother of three children pre-occupied  with ‘the real and the illusory’. Sometimes the distinctions are blurred as young children live in a world of make– believe.

In the section on Plays of Ideas Ruhl’s points of view are simply stated. She feels that it is unnecessary to use a large vocabulary when writing plays as the “rhythm of the language” is far more important

Ruhl offers some sound advice to playwrights. As a playwright myself, Ruhl’s thoughts on The Place of Rhyme in theatre resonated with me as I like to write in rhyme some of the time. Ruhl says, “the sound of the word can actually imitate experience. Subtext can lie in verse.”

Part Two of the book discusses Acting in Plays. Ruhl asks “Do actors need to experience the sadness in order to express the sadness?!”

Part Three deals with People Who Watch Plays, Audiences and Experts. I found Advice to Dead Playwrights from Contemporary Experts to be quite amusing. For example, To Shakespeare – “You should cut that long monologue. I hate direct address.” Also “To be or not to be; it’s confusing and it doesn’t advance the story. It’s too sudden when the lovers fall in love with each other in the forest. Couldn’t they get to know each other a little better first?”

Part Four deals with Making Plays with Other People: Designers, Dramaturgs, Directors and Children.

100  ESSAYS I DON’T HAVE TO WRITE by Sarah Ruhl is a rare find. It is a book to immerse yourself in.

Published by Faber and Faber Inc.