La Bete & Wrong Mountain

Critics have compared Hirson, who is known as a rebel, to Joe Orton, Tom Stoppard, John Osborne, Charles Ludlam, Maxwell Anderson, and even Prokofiev

Written in rhyming iambic-pentameter couplets, La Bete recounts the arrival of a vulgar street performer, Valere, into an elite company of veteran actor

The battles between Elomire, the troupe's leader, and Valere provides the basis for an antic comedy questioning the divide between art and entertainment

Popular acclaim eludes Wrong Mountain's protagonist, Henry Dennett, an aging poet, until he makes a bet with a successful playwright, Guy Halperin, that he can write a play and have it produced

Dennett triumphs, but he is left wondering whether he has spent his entire life climbing the "wrong mountain"