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And it was nominated for 10 Tony Awards on Broadway too! - usually I can predict the general tone of a show, but I have no idea on this one. I'll let you know Leslie.
Has anyone seen or read anything by Terence Rattigan?There's a live screening of The Deep Blue Sea at the end of the month, from the National Theatre. So I've just bought a ticket for it.
I'm going to Edinburgh Fringe Festival in a couple of days, so there will be lots of plays to see - even though I have to admit I'll be seeing more dance than drama. However, I've bought a ticket for a theater adaptation of The Master and Margarita. I read the book many years ago and I really liked it - if I manage to find it among my books, I'd love to read it again sometime.In case you are interested, the adaptation is by English company Sleepless Theatre. You can read more and see a very short trailer here: http://www.sleeplesstheatre.com/about-1/
Gill wrote: "Has anyone seen or read anything by Terence Rattigan?There's a live screening of The Deep Blue Sea at the end of the month, from the National Theatre. So I've just..."
I thought I had responded to this but I guess I just thought about it and didn't actually write it!
I know Rattigan's name but I have never read or seen any of his work. Let me know how you like it Gill!
Marina wrote: "I'm going to Edinburgh Fringe Festival in a couple of days, so there will be lots of plays to see - even though I have to admit I'll be seeing more dance than drama. However, I've bought a ticket f..."Sounds like a lot of fun Marina!
I just found that BBC Radio 4X was airing an adaptation of Oscar Wilde's A Woman of No Importance. Of course, I immediately decided that I should reread this while listening to the radio drama!!My review is HERE for those interested.
I just wanted to share that I'm going to see A midsummer nights dream tomorrow and I'm very much looking forward to it. I had such a good time watching Hamlet by myself at the Globe a few months ago, that I'm going back with my mum as an early birthday present. We're going to quickly squeeze in a Shakespeare exhibition at the British Library first, so it will be a busy, but hopefully fun filled day. I don't do things like this nearly enough!
That's great, Pink. I remember your description and excitement about your trip to the Globe. Looking forward to hearing about this outing.
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Wonderful Pink! - hope you and your mum have a great time!
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You lucky man, Greg! This discussion thread helps me get a lot of vicarious pleasure!
Me too Gill and its seeing everyone else posting here about such great productions that inspires me to go myself! Greg, that sounds like a lot of fun too :)
Pink wrote: "I just wanted to share that I'm going to see A midsummer nights dream tomorrow and I'm very much looking forward to it. I had such a good time watching Hamlet by myself at the Globe a few months ag..."Sounds great Pink! I hope you and your mom will enjoy A Midsummer Night's Dream. I thoroughly enjoyed it at the Globe's touring performance in Hong Kong in 2014.
Pink wrote: "I just wanted to share that I'm going to see A midsummer nights dream tomorrow and I'm very much looking forward to it. I had such a good time watching Hamlet by myself at the Globe a few months ag..."Sounds like a great way to celebrate your birthday Pink! Hope you have a good time :)
Just thought I'd let everyone know that they now have the last night's performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream available on BBC iPlayer for anyone that would like to watch. It's probably not one for Shakespeare purists, but I loved it! http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/...
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Glad you enjoyed it Pink!
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The play feels extremely different as reimagined by Hove; it's very stylized and much less "natural" than the original by Miller. It almost has a touch of Equus about it, that primal language of raw symbols in Equus' stage horses/men.
Sadly though, it didn't quite gel for me; it didn't have the sort of visceral impact it needed to work in the ultra-stylized format. Since the power wasn't there, some parts such as the odd movement/wrestling/dance in a shower of blood toward the end feel just weird rather than chill-worthy.
I suspect the problem is that the LA cast just couldn't carry it. The Broadway production retained at least some of the original London cast and added other talented Londoners like Russell Tovey as well. By contrast, the LA cast doesn't have any holdovers from either the London or Broadway casts. The LA cast was okay but not stellar - I think for this slightly outlandish production style to work, the acting needs to be better than okay. I did see it on the first preview night though; maybe the cast just needs time to grow into it.
I have kind of run out of steam for organizing group plays recently. I like reading plays and we have had some great discussions but I have not been able to come up with any ideas for next year...Would anyone else be interested in sharing this section of the group with me? Or at least have some ideas for themes or plays for 2017?
Wrote you a comment , Leslie, re 2017 plans. What you've done up to yet is fabulous, and very much appreciated. Thank you very much.
I like reading plays with this group and I'm very appreciative of all the effort you put into this Leslie. I think I'd be lost without ideas of what to read, even if I always seem to be behind the timeframe (I'm still working through Novel playwrights at the moment, about to start No Exit) As for where to go from here, I don't know! I'd like to read more Greek drama and some Shakespeare, but I can't think of any particular themes. I hope Gill has offered you more help than I have!
Maybe one season we could have Shakespeare and his Contemporaries as a theme, with either a play by Shakespeare or something like Dr. Faustus as the specific play?
That sounds good to me, id like to read some of his contemporaries work too, including Dr Faustus. It's just the sort of thing I never get around to reading without that extra push.
Pink wrote: "That sounds good to me, id like to read some of his contemporaries work too, including Dr Faustus. It's just the sort of thing I never get around to reading without that extra push."Me too! I think that an Elizabethan drama theme is a good idea. Thanks Pink & Gill!
I'll see if I can come up with some ideas, Leslie. I love this section and how you've been running it so far!One thing I can think of from the top of my head is how under represented women are in drama (as writers obviously) it's not the most inspired theme, but it's a start ;)
Oh and one more thing: how about a genre cross between our poetry and the drama section. Goethe's Faust for example and pretty much everything Shakespeare and Marlowe have written is verse drama/ dramatic poetry?
I've just started reading Hamlet Globe to Globe which is about how a group from the Globe Theatre took a performance of Hamlet to every country in the world. That's some tour!
That sounds wonderful Gill. I saw their final performance when they returned to The Globe this summer and read a little about the project in the programme. I think there might be a YouTube video of their tour, as I remember watching some clips of their performances from around the world.
I've just been looking on YouTube, lots of little extracts that really bring it to life. I knew you'd been to the Globe, but I hadn't realised it was this production.
Yes I'd never been before, but looked for a last minute ticket just incase and found one seat left for the final performance of Hamlet, so I took myself. Then I went back for my birthday a couple of months later with my mum, to watch A midsummer nights dream. They were completely different productions but equally fantastic.
Yesterday, , I went to see the repeat of a live screening from the National Theatre of No Man's Land, starring Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart. It was excellent, even though I wasn't very clear as to what was going on. As a great extra, as part of the screening, there was also an end of performance 'Meet the Cast and Producer' question and answer session.
I was lucky enough to see that in Brighton in august in a fairly small theatre. I have to admit to being fairly confused for most of the play but nothing could detract from watching the incredible talent of the cast. It was also the hottest day of the year and almost unbearably warm in the old theatre but I still enjoyed myself!
I've just finished reading Hamlet Globe to Globe which I found very interesting.Here's my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Nancy, I'm enjoying reading your reviews of plays. Thanks!
Following my reading of Creditors and not particularly enjoying it, I've been thinking more about plays that have worked for me and whether this is a problem I have reading the text on a page, opposed to seeing a performance.Some plays I've recently enjoyed reading have been by Edward Albee, Wole Soyinka, Moliere and Shakespeare. I've also been a fan of Sophocles, Euripides, Arthur Miller and George Bernard Shaw, though I read these longer ago. So I suppose I don't have as many problems as I thought in just reading the text.
The plays I've read and struggled with, feeling like a stage production would have been more beneficial are Creditors, Art, A Doll's House, Waiting for Godot and Dancing at Lughnasa. These were all 2 star, okay reads, but I think I was missing something just reading the text. I have fonder memories looking back on them after an elapse of time, but definitely had a disconnect with them on the page which I don't think is all down to them not being to my taste.
Pink, I definitely agree about Dancing at Lughnasa. I didn't get much out of reading it, but saw it on TV later and was very taken with it.What I like doing best is seeing a play, and then reading it later.
Nancy wrote: "Play: Long Day's Journey Into NightPlaywright: Eugene O'Neill
Finish date: 02 February 2017
Rating: A
Review: We all know Eugene O’ Neill was an alcoholic.
Alcohol proba..."
Have you seen this performed, Nancy? Continuing from what I just said to Pink, I saw this performed and thought it was magnificent, and have since read it a couple of times.
Waiting for Godot is definitely better seen than read. When performed by a cast that gets it, it is wondrously funny in places. I enjoyed 'Art' well enough when I read it. And I have read A Doll's House enough times that I no longer remember what impression it made when first reading it. For me the dialogue-heavy plays, with well notated stage directions, are easier to read than plays with sparse, terse dialogue and meaningful silences.
Gill wrote: "Pink, I definitely agree about Dancing at Lughnasa. I didn't get much out of reading it, but saw it on TV later and was very taken with it.What I like doing best is seeing a play, and then readin..."
Maybe that was one reason that I liked 'Art'.
Pink, I find that it is sometimes helpful to listen to a full cast audio edition -- it is sort of a middle ground between reading a play and seeing it performed. For classics in the public domain, LibriVox has some very good full cast recordings. And if your library has them, L.A. Theater Works has a lot of plays in audio. However, sometimes plays just need to be seen... after all, they were not written to be read as a book but to be performed. I find that it isn't just the actions but also the facial expressions that add so much to a performance.
Based on the plays that you have enjoyed reading, you might like some Restoration comedies such as The School for Scandal.
Nancy wrote: "Gill wrote: "Nancy wrote: "Play: Long Day's Journey Into NightPlaywright: Eugene O'Neill
Finish date: 02 February 2017
Rating: A
Review: We all know Eugene O’ Neill was ..."
A rating from me too for this play! I had seen the Hepburn-Robards movie of this years before I read it and would recommend this version over the 1987 one -- maybe you can get the DVD from your local library (instead of buying it)?
Thanks for your feedback everyone, Liz, you're probably right that dialogue heavy plays or well described stage direction should work better for me. Leslie, I'll take a look on librivox to see what they have. Thanks for the recommendation too, I'll check out The school for scandal.
Gill in regards to watching the performance before reading, I've remembered this is what I've been doing with Shakespeare, so it makes sense this would work for more modern plays too.
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Leslie, I'll take a look on librivox to see wh..."
I've had this happen with some plays Pink, though unlike the rest of you I really loved Dancing at Lughnasa on paper. I think the ones I have the most trouble with on paper are the absurdist ones because I completely miss some of the humor. I got almost nothing out of Waiting for Godot on paper, ditto for Ubu Roi.
As I read plays, I often imagine in my head what facial expressions the actors might use in spots; sometimes I think of things I've seen before in other plays. I don’t know if that helps me bridge the gap? I try to read them as a director would, thinking about how they might be staged and produced. Occasionally when I see a play produced later, I actually feel disappointed because they don't live up to what I'd imagined, haha. But other times, talented productions show facets of a play that I'd completely missed!
I definitely prefer to see as well as read plays, but when that's not possible, I do feel like I get enough out of reading them to make it worth it!
I'm definitely going to try to listen to more full cast recordings along with the books. Thanks for the idea Leslie!
Pink wrote: "Thanks for your feedback everyone, Liz, you're probably right that dialogue heavy plays or well described stage direction should work better for me...."Well, I was including Ibsen in this category, so who knows? :)
I've only read one Ibsen play so far. I should probably try some more and watch some productions too.
Re Long Day's Journey, I've just remembered seeing a tv production done in real time i.e. Each act was on tv at the time of day (all on the same day) that it is detailed as taking place in the act details. I remember it as very moving.
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That sounds very interesting Gill! I wonder if it's still available somewhere?
I've been looking and can't find any references to it, Greg, but I don't think I'm imagining it. I remember it cutting into the day, and then having to stay up late to see the final part. I wonder whether it was another production, that was just screened in this way?
The live performance of it that I saw was a National Theatre touring production with Timothy West and Prunella Scales (who are/were? husband and wife). I've checked and that was in 1991.
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