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The Drama 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Plays of All Time
Presents literary criticism of one hundred plays of world literature, providing plot summaries for each play, a profile of the author, and an assessment of the play's characters and major themes.
612 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 2007
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December 21, 2008
Bearing in mind that this list is inherently subjective, it's nice to have such an in-depth survey of some of the greater plays in the world. I was a little taken aback by how much Shaw Burt chose to add to his list, and also by the proliferation of Greek drama (although that's less surprising). I felt that towards the end of Burt's "Drama 100" he was somewhat desperately making sure he had all his bases covered, rather than legitimately choosing what he felt to be the best plays "of all time."
For example - Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles comes in at number 98 or 99, and while I'd agree that the play is certainly up there among Wasserstein's best, and that Wendy Wasserstein herself might rank among the top 100 playwrights of all time, I'm not sure The Heidi Chronicles would itself rank in the top 100 plays of all time...if that makes sense.
It's very clearly a list written from a western perspective - the two or three Japanese and Chinese plays on the list felt unfortunately a bit "token" rather than thoughtfully chosen. Having worked extensively on The Other Shore, I'm again not sure I'd rank it as Xingxian's absolute best, but it seemed to be filling a void of Chinese plays on the countdown.
Caryl Churchill is represented by Cloud Nine, which in my humble opinion is CRAZY to put on the list before Top Girls, but that could just be me.
And, of course, there's an excess of Shakespeare - King Lear hold the controversial number 1 position (although I'm perfectly satisfied with Burt's explanation of why), Hamlet comes in at number 3, and Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, A Midsummer Night's Dream also fill out the list.
With each play on his list, Burt includes a 4 or 5 page essay exclaiming its brilliance. These essays were my favorite part of the book - turning a page to discover the next play on Burt's countdown was sometimes shocking (I mean, A Doll's House made the top 10! It's good, but...), but the well-written essays accompanying each selection added a lot to my appreciation for each individual play as well as my understanding of what makes a good play...at least, according to Daniel S. Burt.
For example - Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles comes in at number 98 or 99, and while I'd agree that the play is certainly up there among Wasserstein's best, and that Wendy Wasserstein herself might rank among the top 100 playwrights of all time, I'm not sure The Heidi Chronicles would itself rank in the top 100 plays of all time...if that makes sense.
It's very clearly a list written from a western perspective - the two or three Japanese and Chinese plays on the list felt unfortunately a bit "token" rather than thoughtfully chosen. Having worked extensively on The Other Shore, I'm again not sure I'd rank it as Xingxian's absolute best, but it seemed to be filling a void of Chinese plays on the countdown.
Caryl Churchill is represented by Cloud Nine, which in my humble opinion is CRAZY to put on the list before Top Girls, but that could just be me.
And, of course, there's an excess of Shakespeare - King Lear hold the controversial number 1 position (although I'm perfectly satisfied with Burt's explanation of why), Hamlet comes in at number 3, and Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, A Midsummer Night's Dream also fill out the list.
With each play on his list, Burt includes a 4 or 5 page essay exclaiming its brilliance. These essays were my favorite part of the book - turning a page to discover the next play on Burt's countdown was sometimes shocking (I mean, A Doll's House made the top 10! It's good, but...), but the well-written essays accompanying each selection added a lot to my appreciation for each individual play as well as my understanding of what makes a good play...at least, according to Daniel S. Burt.
Displaying 1 of 1 review