The Space Behind the Face
Robert Wilson (1941–2025) spent half a century remaking theater and art, from Einstein on the Beach (1976) to work with Philip Glass, Lou Reed, Allen Ginsberg, John Cage, Tom Waits, Lady Gaga and Jessye Norman. Written with his friend, the actor and writer Keith McDermott, and published after Wilson's death, this memoir moves in vignettes from small-town Texas to New York's downtown scene to the world's stages, by way of a children's theater set of 368 fire hydrants and a twelve-hour silent opera about Joseph Stalin. The audiobook is read by Willem Dafoe and Tom Waits.
“A revealing stroll through a boundary-smashing career.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“I can't think of any body of work as large or as influential.”
— Susan Sontag, on Wilson's work
Sources: Kirkus Reviews; the Sontag line is quoted in the Penguin Press description.
The man who made the stage a painting that moves, telling it in his own words. Pre-order now; it's out November 3.
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