Playwrights

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Who do you like

― anthony, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Becket cracks me up! Aside from that, don't know anybody.

― dave q, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

sam shepard, some of garcia lorca's, becket, and the great "is that a pill or a pill bottle lid?" tenessee williams

― Geoff, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Williams, Stoppard, Abee,Marlowe, arostphonies, Wyncherly

― anthony, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

(Long pause)

Pinter.

― Andrew L, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sam Shepard. Had an insane Stoppard phase, but got over it. David Mamet. Dude who wrote Angels In America (too tired to remember name). Woody Allen (I kid you not, "God" is brilliant). Joan Osborne. Pirandello. Ionesco. Chekov. Genet. Sarte.

― Sterling Clover, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Kushner is who you're thinking of, Sterl.

I never much liked plays, and I say that with the qualification that I've seen almost none; my opinions are based on reading. But I recently read some Ibsen that I really enjoyed, so I'm hoping that I can develop a taste for some others.

JM Synge sux0r.

― Josh, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sarah Kane

― stevo, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Patrick Marber.

― D*A*V*I*D*M, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Beckett, Brian Friel, and... that's it, really.

― Paul Strange, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Based on not a lot of knowledge - most of these have written one play that I've liked very much: Frisch, Durrenmatt, Frayn, Chekov, Wilde, some Shakespeare.

― Madchen, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I hate plays.

I hate the theatre more than any other form, including even films, yet when you read them written down, they seem absurd, butterfly on a pin stylee.

― Kate the Saint, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Beckett, Stoppard and Pinter are all fun, though my favorite Stoppard is his film of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead rather than the theater version. Orton is the best playwright I've never actually seen performed. Shakespeare and Wilde can't miss at their best unless the company really eats. Reading plays, as Kate described, can be a drag, but the strength of material (ref. Orton) usually carries it.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I love beckett's kafka adaptations. Pinter, Stopard, I like. Arthur Miller I love, 'a view from a bridge' is one of my favorite plays. In fact that era of american drama with plays like death of a salesman, A street car named desire (a bit earlier I think), Who's afraid of Virginia woolfe, 12 angry men. all of these know from the film versions (richard burton and Liz taylor in who's afraid...., one of the classic pieces of film ever (another one that I forgot to put on my film list)

back with the english I'll throw in Terrance Rattigan and I like the Shakespere Tradgedies and histories (but not the comedies that much)

― Ed, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

saw Orton's what the butler saw and thought it quite stilted and dated, though it could have been the production of course.

His dairies though definitely search out, extraordinarily frank and quite vicious. At the end no surprise Halliwell caved his head in.

― Billy Dods, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Leave it to Coil in their ELpH vs. Coil guise to record a song called "The Halliwell Hammers." David J of Bauhaus/Love and Rockets had a song on his first solo album called "Joe Orton's Wedding," about the same scenario.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm not too up on my playwrites, so I'll just say that the divine LC tells me that Caryl Churchill is very good indeed. Yay or nay?

― DG, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Then, maybe. Now, no.

Which is better: a bad play well-acted or vice versa?

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I like the collaborative efforts of Ric Flair and Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat.

― Kris, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

search: Paula Vogl destroy: John Patrick Shanley

My ans. to myself: neither. A bad play leaves embarrassed pit in stomach; no matter how good the performance, confused strivings = confused audience

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The theater major speaks! He sez:

Bad play well-acted, no question. A great actor's energy is contagious. Would you rather see shit turned into gold, or gold turned into shit?

Fav Playwrights: Euripides, BILLY SHAKES, Moliere, Wilde, Chekhov, Durrenmacht, Ionesco, WILLIAMS, Miller, Coward, Orton, Albee, MAMET, Stoppard, Kushner.

Criminally underrated playwright: Thornton Wilder. Favorite new playwright: Kenneth Lonergan. Thanks for mentioning: Brian Friel, I was in a phqat play of his, Translations. Second act was a little shaky though...

― Ian White, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Euripides trousers, you mend-a these trousers. Hee hee! Sorry, I couldn't resist.

― DG, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

who's afraid of virginia woolf?

waiting for godot

a taste of honey (delaney)

desire under the elms (o'neill)

hamlet

a man for all seasons

― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The Two Great Fags of American Drama : Tenesse Williams and Edward Albee. How could we forget them.

― anthony, Sunday, 29 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ernie Wise.

― Michael Jones, Sunday, 29 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Anton: the only 2 monologues I know are from "The Zoo Story" and "Glass Menagerie"! What does this mean? Am I gay?? Or just really into animal metaphors?

I think the Wooster group does some great work that borders on playwrighting: their cut-up adaptations of modernist classix like "The Hairy Ape" or Stein's "Dr. Faustus Lights the Lights" are some of the most exciting and energizing shows I've ever seen, even if they (or "because they") contravene most accepted theater practice.

― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 29 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

[SPOILER ALERT]
many years since, small mark s happened to enter a room in which a TV was on just as [x] in the Glass Menagerie sweeps gm to floor with coat by mistake: TRAUMA BURNED ON BRANE, and perhaps all life's sadness thereafter linked to this.

― mark s, Sunday, 29 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Stoppard - sometimes too clever or cute for his own good, but I still like him. Checkov still seems timeless to me.

― Jason, Sunday, 29 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

With Williams read the Rose Tattoo, Suddenly Last Summer, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof adn Small Craft Warnings.
For Albee it is Sea Scapes, Three Tall women and Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

― anthony, Sunday, 29 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

AE: I meant that the only 2 monologues I know by heart are by the 2 playwrights you describe!

I don't like reading plays, actually. They come off sounding either contrived or uninteresting. Like reading HTML or something.

― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 29 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one year passes...

plays should be watched, not read.

I like Alex Johnston.

On the basis of one play I also like Ibsen.

Ionesco floats my boat too.

Shakespeare & Marlowe are toptastic as well.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 21:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Beckett is king. Like talking to a confused genius.

― Lara (Lara), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 21:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Ibsen, Ionesco and Christopher Durang are at the top of my list - there's a couple of things by Shepard and Stoppard that I like but not much. The only Shakespeare I like are the ones that end in roman numerals.

― Millar (Millar), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 21:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh and Shelagh Delaney.

― Lara (Lara), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 21:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Beckett, Shepherd, Pinter, Mamet, Miller, Jim Cartwright, Williams, Albee (mainly for Virginia Woolf), Chekov, Ibsen, John Osborne, Sartre (mainly for In Camera/No Exit). Christopher Hampton for Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Coward, Wilde. Phillip Ridley for Pitchfork Disney. Not forgetting Sophocles, Aristophanes, Marlowe.

― Jamie Conway (Jamie Conway), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 22:10 (twenty-two years ago)

tracer i feel so vindicated by your post

― Josh (Josh), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 02:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Shakespeare, Wilde, Beckett, Sophocles, Pinter, Miller, Ionesco, Chekhov, Stoppard. Playwright whose work I'd most like to see who I haven't seen in any form (other than words on paper): Max Frisch.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 11:48 (twenty-two years ago)

(a few weeks ago)
My brother: I met Tom Stoppard last weekend.
Me: Really? Wow. What did you say to him?
My brother: Asked him for a fag.
Me: Did he give you one?
My brother: Course.
Me: Did you say anything else?
My brother: Nope.

What a cheeky bugger.

― Sam (chirombo), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 12:14 (twenty-two years ago)

anyone know anything abt Fo? I have the vague impression that he's the theater Calvino, but anyway, rfi FO.

― g--ff c-nn-n (gcannon), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 12:18 (twenty-two years ago)

For sheer fun of actually playing: Frisch, Stoppard, Shakespeare, Jarry. For sitting back and being impressed Beckett. For candles lit and talent lost, Sarah Kane, who accomplished more than revisionism gives her credit for. For making girls who've come to the play fall in love with you for your sheer malevolence it is always going to be Pinter.

― Matt (Matt), Thursday, 17 July 2003 00:27 (twenty-two years ago)

But Cleansed is so awful ...

― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Thursday, 17 July 2003 01:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Some notable omissions so far (I pretty much agree with everyone above--Sarah Kane's good work unexcepted): Aeschylus ... Congreve, Behn, Middleton, Tourneur ... Goethe ... Shaw ... Artaud, Capek, Gombrowicz, Havel ... Greenberg, Ludlam, Ives, Mee, Ayckbourn

(I'm sure I'm forgetting zillions of twentieth-century guys)

Some talented contemporary playwrights from Chicago: Mickle Maher, Bryn Magnus, Sean Reddy, Matt O'Neill, Steve Mosqueda, Brett Neveu ... Michael Martin, before he moved to New Orleans ... Denis Johnson has also had some interesting work mounted here.

Oh, and that Zimmerman woman ...

― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Thursday, 17 July 2003 01:43 (twenty-two years ago)

the only playwrights I love / not to have been mentioned above / are: John Arden, William Saroyan ("The Time of Your Life" is KILLER), Peter Nichols, Suzan-Lori Parks, and my friend Rob Matsushita, who will someday be recognized as a frickin' sick-ass genius. (You can probably find out more about his plays, including the new one called "Psychos in Love," at his blog: http://robmatsushita.blogspot.com.

Oh, and me.

― Neudonym, Thursday, 17 July 2003 02:58 (twenty-two years ago)

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