American playwright whose experiences as a draftee assigned to a hospital-support unit in Vietnam (Vietnam War) were the basis for several acclaimed dramas. His work is known for its use of grotesque humour, satire, and surreal fantasy.

Rabe was educated at Loras College, Dubuque (B.A., 1962), and Villanova University, Pennsylvania (M.A., 1968). He completed his graduate studies in theatre after serving in the army from 1965 to 1967.

His plays about war include The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel (1969), which depicts the ruthlessness of the Viet Cong and the brutalization of American troops and shows the effects of the war on combatants and noncombatants alike. In Sticks and Bones (1972), a blinded, distraught veteran returns to his middle-American family; he cannot deal with his anger and sorrow, and they eagerly help him to commit suicide. Streamers (1975; filmed 1983) concerns violent racial and sexual tensions and prejudices in an army camp in Virginia. The Vietnam Plays was published in 1993. Rabe's other plays include The Orphan (1975), a reworking of Aeschylus's Oresteia trilogy; In the Boom Boom Room (1975), about the degradation of a go-go dancer in Philadelphia; Hurlyburly (1985; filmed 1998) and Those the River Keeps (1991), two related dramas about disillusionment in Hollywood; and Recital of the Dog (1993), a work of black humour.