The Busy World Is Hushed

Bunin's play is ideal for recording, as it features only three actors and one set. Clayburgh very adeptly portrays Hannah, a widowed minister, who hires a young gay assistant, Brandt (Linklater), to help her write a book about a newly discovered gospel, possibly preceding those in the New Testament. Her itinerant gay son, Thomas (MacFarlan), has returned to help. The two young men sound disconcertingly alike: intelligent but a bit smug. When Hannah mentions that gospels were common following the death of Jesus, the importance of a new one is diminished, and it becomes apparent that Hannah's personal problems are at the heart of the play. Her decision to encourage the somewhat withdrawn Brandt to love her son will haunt her by the play's climax. The soft-spoken Clayburgh gets to play raucous and uncontrolled before she regains her poise. The last disc has an interview with Bunin saying that his play is emotionally autobiographical: his father was half Jewish and his mother Catholic, so ""naturally"" he was raised Episcopalian and attended a Quaker school. His play is heavy on religious declamations and overwrought emotionally but has a sense of purpose.