Three Scenes in the Life of a Trotskyist

Told in three scenes over the course of forty years, Three Scenes in the Life of a Trotskyist traces the story of Lev Trachtenberg from idealist youth to contrarian middle age to hard-core reactionary old age. Lev is a prototypical New York intellectual: educated at City College and in left-wing movements, he makes his reputation writing for small magazines and teaching modernist literature. He falls out of step with the Left during the culture wars of the 1960s, and by the election of Reagan he has embraced the Right with a convert’s zeal. Three Scenes is a play about politics, literature, and the corrosive power of success in America.