The Law of Remains

"The Law of Remains" is a 1991 play by Los Angeles-based Iranian playwrite, director and filmmaker Reza Abdoh. [Dasgupta, Gautam. (Sep. 1994) "Body/Politic: The Ecstasies of Reza Abdoh." ( [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0735-8393(199409)16%3A3%3C18%3ABTEORA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-9 JSTOR link] ) "Performing Arts Journal", Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 18-27doi:10.2307/3245681.] The play, initially staged in a New York City hotel, ["The Iranian" (April 10 2000) [http://www.iranian.com/Books/2000/April/Abdoh/ Passion player: the theater of Reza Abdoh] . iranian.com Retrieved 27/02/08.] was described in "A Companion to Twentieth-Century American Drama" as "an apocalyptic fantasia". [Krasner, David. ed. (2005) "A Companion to Twentieth-Century American Drama". Blackwell Publishing. 576 pages. ISBN: 1405110880 p. 546.] In its 1992 review, "The New York Times" characterized it as "one of the angriest theater pieces ever hurled at a New York audience".Holden, Stephen. (February 26 1992). [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CEED71231F935A15751C0A964958260 Theater in review] . "New York Times". Retrieved 27/02/08.]

The seven-scene play focuses on violence and its social impacts, through the use of Andy Warhol’s aesthetics, incorporating police reports on the murders of Jeffrey Dahmer in exploring the deeds of fictionalized killer "Jeffrey Snarling". It uses Dahmer's crime, particularly against an adolescent Laotian who almost escaped Dahmer until police presumed the conflict was a dispute between gay lovers, to create a metaphor for "governmental indifference to the AIDS crisis". Anita Durst, an actress and disciple of Abdoh who procured the location, summarized the play as "Andy Warhol and Jeffrey Dahmer meet in Heaven". [Traub, James. (October 6 2002) [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9801E4DA1339F935A35753C1A9649C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=4 The Dursts have odd properties] . "The New York Times". Retrieved 27/02/08.] The play is a non-linear multi-media presentation, adding to traditional dramatic structure a soundtrack of "death, sex and violence" and "raucous" imagery, both live and electronic. [Leiter, Samuel L. (2000) "Directors and direction." "The Cambridge History of American Theater". Don B. Wilmeth, C.W.E. Bigsby, eds. Cambridge University Press. 466-489. ISBN 0521472040 p. 485.]

References