Let's talk about plays.

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Do you prefer to read plays or to see them performed? What are your favorites? The other day a friend convinced me that "The Frogs" by Aristophanes is still very funny...Which plays retain their charm and meaning and which ones have lost something? Come, let us sit on the ground and tell sad stories of the deaths of kings!

― Jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 15 June 2004 19:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I like Synge.

― the finefox, Tuesday, 15 June 2004 20:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Let's! Long Day's Journey into Night--Wow! Still! And Man and Superman! Tom Stoppard's a gonzo genius (Arcadia, and the one about Joyce and Marx and the dada guy meeting in Zurich!) even if he is writing the screenplay to the Philip Pullman books.

― otto, Tuesday, 15 June 2004 20:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I am quite fond of Stoppard, and am always surprised to remember that he wrote the screenplays for Enigma and Shakespeare in Love. Which one is the Joyce/Marx etc. play?

― Jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 15 June 2004 20:09 (twenty-one years ago)

It's called Travesties. It'll spin your head completely around. It's about this guy, Henry Carr, who owed Joyce money (Joyce makes fun of him somewhere in Ulysses), who tells someone about a day in 1917 Joyce, Marx, and Tristan Tzara all met in Zurich. People change identities, etc. What makes the play so amazing (and I mean, amazing, Stoppard's seriously some kind of genius) is that the dialogue coming out of Joyce's and Marx's and Tzara's mouths is beyond credible, even when the metadramatic hi jinx ensue, and Joyce becomes Marx and Marx becomes Tzara and all. You have Joyce punning obscurities and Tzara matching that with dada schtick that never fails to amaze. Amazing!

― otto, Tuesday, 15 June 2004 20:16 (twenty-one years ago)

My favorite playwriter is Anton Tchekov. I don´t think anyone can compete with him.
I prefer to see plays instead of reading them. Plays sort of have to be brought to life to really sparkle. Though I seldom go to the theatre.

― Jens Drejer (Jens Drejer), Tuesday, 15 June 2004 21:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I really like Brecht and Ibsen. Saw a production of the Good Citizen at an amateur theater in Madison, WI and loved every second. And I could probably watch The Importance of Being Earnest ten times over without getting bored -- saw that at a community college. Superyoung or amateur theater is the real test of a classic, I guess. Seeing Earnest that way reminded me of a guy who used to keep a really dusty old record player around to test his RN'R albums for true-great status: if they still rocked when heard through one broken speaker and a 30-year-old needle, then they passed. I wish I could see Lady Windermere's Fan -- and DAMN would I like to see Ibsen's Wild Duck.

Locally, recently, Mickle Maher just intimidates me. He's a great actor too.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 15 June 2004 23:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Lenin!!

Marx is in The Coast of Utopia.

― the stopfox, Tuesday, 15 June 2004 23:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I love "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead". I bite my thumb at you sir. But do you bite your thumb?
I had the great good fortune to see Tony Kushner's latest work "Caroline, Or Change" at its off-broadway premiere. It's a musical, but way beyond...anyway, Tony Kushner is so brilliant, and I have never seen his other plays on stage, but he is a playwright who is accessible as literature. if that makes sense. Read Homeland/Kabul. That makes sense.

― aimurchie, Wednesday, 16 June 2004 00:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Yup, Lenin in Travesties, not Marx. My head was spun around.

― otto, Wednesday, 16 June 2004 02:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I only like beckett so far.

― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 11:41 (twenty-one years ago)

i prefer reading to performances. the last few plays i saw were very self-conscious celebrity productions and were rather stilted as a result. i would have been happier at home, with the books.
as far as authors... maybe tennessee williams? give me southern gothic and sweaty, repressed desire and slowly rotating ceiling fans, please.

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 12:06 (twenty-one years ago)

tennessee williams - yup. Also Sam Shepard? Lots of his plays can be read as literature. I brought up Tony Kushner earlier because his playwriting is very unique -he is a political playwright, and he bases his craft on huge, gigantic monologues with dialogue between characters being almost secondary. "Angels In America" certainly has dialogue - but Kushner's message ends up being more important than the characters.
As opposed to, say, Arthur Miller, who is very political but very dialogue based in his craft. It's hard to read plays that are all dialogue - reading Mamet is not the same as seeing Mamet.

― aimurchie, Wednesday, 16 June 2004 12:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I LOVE reading plays.
Samuel Beckett, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee are so cool :-D
I haven't read T. Williams yet but I guess I'll like him.

― Fred (Fred), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 14:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I like both reading plays - because I can imagine my own stage direction and sets and actors in the roles - and seeing them - because it's like TV with a clean screen! - but I prefer reading them if they're not that good. There's nothing worse than being trapped in the theatre in the middle of the row when there are three actors intensely nakeding around only a couple of metres from your face and knowing that you are stuck there till they stop or you will be a PHILISTINE.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 14:33 (twenty-one years ago)

O my God, Fred, if you like those others (particularly Miller) you should read Streetcar Named Desire--it will hurt your heart! In a good way.

― otto, Wednesday, 16 June 2004 14:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I've seen the movie with Brando in it and I loved it. I guess I'll enjoy the play much more :-)

― Fred (Fred), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Not necessarily. Brando's so perfect for that role it's hard to imagine on your own a better Stanley. But try it out! It's a beautiful, heartbreaking play.

― otto, Wednesday, 16 June 2004 15:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, I forgot Tennessee Williams.

― Jens Drejer (Jens Drejer), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 16:16 (twenty-one years ago)

There are some plays that make good reading--Stoppard's, for instance--but seeing them performed is better. When I saw the film (virtually the play on screen) of "Butley," it changed my life--made me an absolute adoring admirer of Alan Bates, for one thing. I still don't know exactly what it was about that vicious/funny/desperate character that grabbed me so deeply, but it probably has something to do with my nice Southern girl upbringing that made me repress all those urges. (Of course I bought the play, and know it pretty much by heart. "She thinks you're creepy." "Why didn't you tell me this before?" "You never asked me before." "I didn't ask you now, either." "I know, but I got tired of waiting.")

And if anyone has any lingering doubt that an actor can transform the meaning of a line, go to see "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" and listen to Alan Rickman tell the class, "Turn to page three hundred and sixty-four." How he can make that so menacing---

― Carol Robinson (carrobin), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 17:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I like A TASTE OF HONEY!!

― the junefox, Wednesday, 16 June 2004 23:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I bite my thumb at you,sir. But you sir? Yes, I bite my thumb. At me sir? Yes you sir, and therefore I bite my thumb.

― aimurchie, Thursday, 17 June 2004 00:31 (twenty-one years ago)

also, the end of the original play "streetcar" is slightly different than the end of the movie because problems with the studio. the orginal ending has a lot more to say. the movie is more htan just a filming of the play as well. that cut to the burst of water from the hose after the rape scene is a tiny bit of genius.

― tom cleveland (tom cleveland), Thursday, 17 June 2004 03:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm lucky to be in Chicago in one way: storefront theater. Lots of very good noncelebrity actors, so you get a real performance of the thing, plus new plays written by locals.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Saturday, 19 June 2004 00:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Ann- I feel the same affectionate obsession with "The Importance of Being Earnest" that you indicate. I've seen it, I read it often, I quote from it. One of my most prized possessions is the audiocassette version with the cast headed by Dame Edith Evans as Lady Bracknell.

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Saturday, 19 June 2004 04:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Ummmmm...

How come nobody is mentioning Spaulding Gray?

Can I tell you how gutted I am about Spaulding Gray?

― clellie, Monday, 21 June 2004 20:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Going to the theatre is becoming prohibitively expensive for me, grrr. I want to see Ralf Little in Billy Liar this week but I'd have to go without food for a week.

Reading the plays is no substitute, although it is enjoyable.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 22 June 2004 07:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Jesus, I couldn't believe how expensive it was to go to the theatre in London the last time I was there. Never again. Except to the Globe, which was great the last time we went. And to things I can get into for free, of course.

Theatre in Dublin is not as expensive, although we also don't get the same big name actors (this is not always a bad thing), but I still don't go very often. There's only so many times a person can sit through Juno and the Paycock, even if they like it.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Tuesday, 22 June 2004 08:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Even to go to am dram shows here is now about £8, which ok is not LOADS, but double that if the household want to go together and bam, we've spent our food budget...

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 22 June 2004 09:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I bought the play script of Billy Liar on Saturday!

― the bellefox, Tuesday, 22 June 2004 11:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I read it for drama at school but all I remember is oranges...

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 22 June 2004 11:23 (twenty-one years ago)

it's a pretty obvious choice, but i could read ibsen's "the doll house" once a year forever & not get bored of it. i was first given it as a senior in high school having only read shakespeare & 'waiting for godot' for plays at the time & i was just completely blown away. shakespeare is gorgeous & godot is clever, but with 'a dolls house' i actually felt like the action was really occurring & like the whole thing was some sort of elusive (perhaps not!) profound statement. & it still reads radical, all these years later.

i've never seen it performed, alas.

― j c (j c), Tuesday, 22 June 2004 13:03 (twenty-one years ago)

oooh, have you read the Wild Duck? Made me cry and I've never even seen it performed. "Cold abstraction" my ass!!!!

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 22 June 2004 20:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Wild Duck, Very heavy on the theme of "the lie of life" versus the inconsiderate artist-type who has to go around shattering everybody's illusions... wow. I like shattering illusions. I like breathing. It's hard to face this -- paradox, is it? -- and he got it out so well...

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 22 June 2004 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.