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82nd out of 449 books
—
510 voters
All in the Timing
by
David Ives
The world according to David Ives is a very odd place, and his plays constitute a virtual stress test of the English language -- and of the audience's capacity for disorientation and delight. Ives's characters plunge into black holes called "Philadelphias," where the simplest desires are hilariously thwarted. Chimps named Milton, Swift, and Kafka are locked in a room and m...more
Paperback, 336 pages
Published
November 8th 1994
by Vintage
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I am well versed in the works of David Ives. I spent the better part of my high school weekends in Montana classrooms watching his short scenes enacted by a hundred or so peers and did more than a few myself. His first collection, All in the Timing, is a marvelously compendium of wit and wisdom that not even the worst, most tumultuously pubescent teenage reader can ruin. Sure Thing, The Philadelphia, and Mere Mortals are the brightest stars in this collection, but other, more inventive plays lik...more
All the sudden I got into my head that I wanted to read this play that was in one of my college lit books. What I remembered was that two people were in a cafe and every time a bell rang they changed their conversation.
Not much of a starting point, so I threw these facts at ex-bf Matt who knows his playwriting - and he totally called it.
Some of the plays are super silly in a very 90's comedy kind of way, but I like "Sure Thing". It covers nearly every plausible outcome of two people meeting ran...more
Not much of a starting point, so I threw these facts at ex-bf Matt who knows his playwriting - and he totally called it.
Some of the plays are super silly in a very 90's comedy kind of way, but I like "Sure Thing". It covers nearly every plausible outcome of two people meeting ran...more
While I was in Chicago for Christmas, my girlfriend's parents took us all to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater to see, of course, Moliere's School for Lies, adapted by David Ives from The Misanthrope. It was hilarious and silly in the way that Moliere is; for instance, one suitor to the heroine explains that his major accomplishment is being quite stupid; and the whole play wraps up neaty and tidily.
But in the Ives adaptation, there's some extra zing in those zingers, whether it's the anachronism...more
But in the Ives adaptation, there's some extra zing in those zingers, whether it's the anachronism...more
I cheated. I didn't read the two-act play included in this set. I started it and then felt that it was just too much Ives in one sitting.
Still, this is my first time experiencing ALL of the All in the Timing. I've seen "Sure Thing", "Words, Words, Words", "The Philadelphia", and "The Universal Language" before in previous drama classes and/or One Act plays. They're funny and enjoyable and the play on language is fantastic.
Some of these are simply amazing and demand an orchestration so precise th...more
Still, this is my first time experiencing ALL of the All in the Timing. I've seen "Sure Thing", "Words, Words, Words", "The Philadelphia", and "The Universal Language" before in previous drama classes and/or One Act plays. They're funny and enjoyable and the play on language is fantastic.
Some of these are simply amazing and demand an orchestration so precise th...more
Six comic one-act plays, in descending order of my preference:
"Words, Words, Words": Three monkeys named Swift, Milton, and Kafka are part of an experiment to see if they can in fact type Hamlet, all the while throwing bits of Shakespeare's play into their dialogue.
"Sure Thing": A couple meet at a cafe and every time their conversation hits a deal-breaker, a bell rings and they rewind a little and start again.
"The Philadelphia": Everything's going wrong for Mark, so Al explains that such a turn...more
"Words, Words, Words": Three monkeys named Swift, Milton, and Kafka are part of an experiment to see if they can in fact type Hamlet, all the while throwing bits of Shakespeare's play into their dialogue.
"Sure Thing": A couple meet at a cafe and every time their conversation hits a deal-breaker, a bell rings and they rewind a little and start again.
"The Philadelphia": Everything's going wrong for Mark, so Al explains that such a turn...more
Oh, David Ives, I think I'm in love with you!
I stumbled across this book when my friend moved out of town; it was in her discard pile. As a playwright, I love finding and reading new voices, so I grabbed it, took it home, and put it on my "to read" nightstand. I didn't read it, though, until after I won a playwriting contest and one of the adjudicators told me that my play felt a lot like the work of David Ives. In that moment, I remember having adopted the book and I dove into it to assess the...more
I stumbled across this book when my friend moved out of town; it was in her discard pile. As a playwright, I love finding and reading new voices, so I grabbed it, took it home, and put it on my "to read" nightstand. I didn't read it, though, until after I won a playwriting contest and one of the adjudicators told me that my play felt a lot like the work of David Ives. In that moment, I remember having adopted the book and I dove into it to assess the...more
Read for school, liked 3 of plays, loved 1 (Words, Words, Words) honestly hated the rest. Especially hating two of the more popular plays. While Ives is a master of wordplay, he spends a bit too much timing showing off his prowess and not enough timing thinking about his audience. When you try too hard to show how smart you are and be funny and go right over the top of the audiences heads...it's a miss. Also, stuffing too many plays into one work that are so similar in delivery style is extremel...more
David Ives is a masterful playwright. He knows how to say a lot without saying much (or by saying the same simple things over and over). His plays are either devastatingly funny or just...devsstating. He explores all manner of human relationships, though mostly romantic ones, in ways the are honest to the point of brutality and sometimes almost too cynical to take. However, his plays feel - you can't deny that. Variations on the Death of Trotsky, The Philadelphia, and A Singular Kind of Guy are...more
Apart from "Long Ago and Far Away," (I think it was that one...) which is one of the most depressing things I've ever read, this is a fantastic collection of wonderous absurdism.
Very faves:
"The Universal Language." It only works if you read it out loud. Witty as anything, and bizarrely sweet on top of it all.
"The Philadelphia" - How much snark can you cram into a one-act playlet? Ask Ives.
"Philip Glass Buys a Loaf Of Bread" - Yup, pretty much.
Very faves:
"The Universal Language." It only works if you read it out loud. Witty as anything, and bizarrely sweet on top of it all.
"The Philadelphia" - How much snark can you cram into a one-act playlet? Ask Ives.
"Philip Glass Buys a Loaf Of Bread" - Yup, pretty much.
Read the six plays that are part of the All In the Timing script that you can produce. Here is the order in which I liked the plays from most to least.
The universal language
Variations on the death of Trotsky
Sure thing
The Philadelphia
Words words words
Phillip glass buys a loaf of bread
Would possibly use the first three as a scene study in my class, but not as a produced play. My audience would not get it.
The universal language
Variations on the death of Trotsky
Sure thing
The Philadelphia
Words words words
Phillip glass buys a loaf of bread
Would possibly use the first three as a scene study in my class, but not as a produced play. My audience would not get it.
Astoundingly funny and delightfully creative. It's hard to imagine anyone writing a one-act play giving a trip to the bakery some "Einstein on the Beach" treatment or approach the murder of an exiled Russian revolutionary like a choose-your-own adventure book, but Ives wanders pretty far off the reservation in both. Perhaps the finest piece in the bunch is the first, "Sure Thing". Oh-so-witty.......
Some of the plays in this book including All in the Timing, are much better when on stage than as if you are to read it. The nature of David Ives style of play writing is to make you decide how you want to view the scenes take place.
This has to be the BEST collection of one act plays ever to be written. I have had hours upon hours of fun reading this out loud with friends over the years. Amazingly, I have never seen one of these plays staged!
i'm not really a reading plays person because i find them hard to visualize a lot of times but i have to say i enjoyed this book a lot. a present from bethany i believe...
Mar 02, 2008
Jacob / Julie
marked it as to-read
This book came up in conversation, totally independently from my reading of Word Freak, as a response to some passages from Tom Stoppard plays on language ... I think we originally got on the topic from the subject of ambiguity (and there from a discussion of the illustrated Strunk & White) which let to "Hamlet... in love... with the old man's daughter... the old man... thinks." And from there to David Ives' "The Universal Language" -- which as an Esperanto speaker I am immediately interest...more
All the plays thematically toy with various ideas and implications of time. The quality of the writing ranges from near-genius to totally gimmicky. I'm fairly certain this guy is the one responsible for the movie Groundhog Day. There are some very imaginative games he plays in here, and there is innovative staging to represent various (often cerebrally engaging, but sometimes rather heartbreaking) models of time. It's very accessible work, however...which is why the plays are increasingly gettin...more
I have been reading bits of this book for several years and finally finished the plays I had not yet sampled. My favorite is still "Variations on the Death of Trotsky."
Hysterical. Amazing. Intelligent. Sad. Inquisitive. Impressive. Lovely. Fugue-like. Mathematical. Clever. Zingy.
I just want more of Ives's one-act plays.
I just want more of Ives's one-act plays.
Very entertaining read. Ever since, I've become mind set on looking out for production of Mr Ives' works. If they turn up, I wouldn't miss them!
David Ives is one of my favorite comedic playwrights ever. I was lucky I saw his plays performed at Penn when I visited Rachel. What a great read.
Sure thing the Philadelphia and a cut of The Universal Language will make their way into my Advanced drama students' loves this Spring.
Read "The Philadelphia" only. Interesting use of dialogue, creation of a different world.
Will finish later.
Will finish later.
Usually very funny, even if it is hit-and-miss. good read, but more fun to see performed. thumbs up.
Just got this book today, sat down and read the entire thing straight through. I vaguely remembered four of the one-acts being performed in drama class my freshman year of high school... I remember finding them funny but after re-reading them now, a few years later, I get a lot more of the humor that went over my head at the time. And all I can say is: David Ives is a f***ing genius. He's hysterically funny, has an odd and quirky view of the world, and in the midst of it all, actually has someth...more
Love these plays; fun and quirky they make you think about ordinary things in different ways.
Very fond memories of doing this show. Really is a comical dream and equal mindfuck.
At times brilliantly funny; at times a bit too clever for his own good, David Ives creates a series of 5-10 minute abdurdly comical vignettes that deal with life, death, romance and the random inevitability of a universe over which we have no control.
On their own, the pieces stand as lovely set pieces -- particularly "Una Moonda" which deals with language and our desperate inability to try to communicate with one another. Together they are not always very cohesive. They are most definitely an en...more
On their own, the pieces stand as lovely set pieces -- particularly "Una Moonda" which deals with language and our desperate inability to try to communicate with one another. Together they are not always very cohesive. They are most definitely an en...more
Saw a selection of the plays off-Broadway and loved them.
Didn't like most of these but two or three were fine.
Mar 16, 2013
Sami Fauzan
added it
this is may be a good plays
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A contemporary American playwright whose plays often consist of one act and are generally comedies. They are notable for their verbal dexterity, theatrical invention, and quirky humor.
He earned his MFA in Playwriting from The Yale School of Drama. A Guggenheim Fellow in playwriting, David is probably best known for his evening of one-act comedies called "All In the Timing". The show won the Outer...more
More about David Ives...
He earned his MFA in Playwriting from The Yale School of Drama. A Guggenheim Fellow in playwriting, David is probably best known for his evening of one-act comedies called "All In the Timing". The show won the Outer...more
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“so even an assassin can make the flowers grow." -variations on the death of Trotsky”
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Jan 26, 2008 10:52am