The General’s Memoirs

Playwright John Guare has long been fascinated by the odd corners of American history, and in his new play A Few Stout Individuals, he has uncovered one of the oddest. The play looks at the last days of General Ulysses S. Grant, who, senile, dying, and nearly bankrupt, is besieged in his New York townhouse by his wife, children, and various hangers-on (including Mark Twain)—all of whom have a stake in the completion of his memoirs. Meanwhile, Grant drifts in and out of reality,