j From Interview， August 1987， by Kevin Sessums<br > There s a creature known in the South as a feist dog. Little. Scraggly.<br > High-strung. You know where one lives by a backyard full of barks.<br > The thing ll take on a German shepherd--shit， the whole German army--<br > if it thinks its territory is being threatened. But it likes kids too. And it likes<br > the feel of a hand o/! its underbelly.<br > Playwright and screenwriter Alan Bowne， whose work concerns the<br > straggly underbelly ~( life itself， has the friendly tenacity of one of those<br > tight-tailed mutts. "People don t like what I write: Screw era，" he insists<br > a bone of contention clenched fiercely between his teeth. "That just means<br > they don t like my truth. I don t write Long Island theater. I don t write for<br > e o!d guard who ve been brain dama ed ，o-<br > Ith~nte comedies full o ，-~，)~r~.， _ ， g on the plays of Eugene "lv，~ill<br > f ui people and I bounce era off ablacO w<br > t s easy to understand， however， all."<br > how some might wish to avert their eyes<br > from the track marks of humor in Bowne s work. FORTY DEUCE， his first<br > play and later a Paul Morrissey film， concerns a group of male hustlers in a<br > room off Times Square who try to sell a fourteen-year-old to a rich<br > businessman--all the while concealing the fact that the youngster， who Ii~o~<br > naked on the soiled bed throu~ho， t ~. ~l~， !~ ~ from an overdose oi<br > ~rU~. AM6[/ler play， SHARON AND BILLY， is about a brother and sister s<br > guerrilla warfare against their parents in 1950s blue-collar Los Angeles.<br > His next， A SNAKE IN THE VEIN， is scheduled for this fall at Manhattan<br > Class Company and concerns a sage old heroin addict and his young<br > recruit. Bowne s second Morrissey film， Mixed Blood， was about a decadent<br > den mother and her young troop of dope-peddling thieves in New York s<br > Alphabet City， sort of a female Oliver Twisted. Yet another Morrissey<br > movie， Throwback， is currently in production. Starring Sasha Mitchell，<br > a former Calvin Klein jeans model， it takes us on a tour of the new yuppie<br > mafia and the boxing world in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn. But it<br > is Bowne s latest play， BEIRUT， that is the most controversial of his career.<br > Set in the near future， its subject matter is a plague much like AIDS that<br > has caused quarantining and tattooing of its victims. The two heterosexual<br > characters are barely clothed<br > the pus throughout its 59-minute running time， and<br > of sexuality， enticing as well as toxic， oozes from the work s exposed<br >pores. BEIRUT has caused critics to rail. Clive Barnes bellowed against it，<br >Tile Village Voice labeled it " ，，<br > dangerous.<br > "The Village Voice? What s that?" Bowne bellows back. "It s the left-wing<br >National Enquirer. I don t read it. And， to tell you the truth， I don t care what<br >a lisping， rheumy old fart who not only passes out in the middle of plays<br >but also works for a piece of toilet tissue like the New York Post thinks about<br ><br >