Drama

[genoveva]

This thread is for posting recommended and favorite plays. Please list some of your favorite playwrights. Any of your experiences with drama would be welcomed too!

This is an attempt to integrate more drama into my reading... :nod:

I am embarrassed to say that I have very few plays on my bookshelf! :blush:
I have Shakespeare's plays, Night of January 16th by Ayn Rand, and Exiles by James Joyce. But that's it!

I have recently been turned on to Henrik Ibsen and am looking forward to reading his plays. I'm also excited to read two by Howard Zinn titled- Emma: A Play About Emma Goldman, American Anarchist (2002), and Marx in Soho: A Play on History (1999).

[IrishCanadian]

I love reading Drama.
I suggest you look up Brecht.
If you like Irish Drama (I noticed you ead Joyce's) then Yeat's "The Countess Kathleen", Behan's "The Quare Fellow", ... I'm terrible at remembering the names of playwrites but "the Plaugh in th Stars" is good and so is "Playboy of the Western World"
Then theres not irish Drama ... haha the list is endless. Check out Ibsen, Chekov (sp??) , JFWalker ...

[Bandini]

I like Brecht. Beckett, Pinter, Miller are all well worth a crack.

[chmpman]

Also Irish, and a bit of a history lesson: "Translations" by Brian Friel

I read Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler"(sp?) and liked it quite a bit.

You might want to try some Beckett, "Waiting for Godot" has been selected for the Book Club.

[Xamonas Chegwe]

I must confess that, Shakey Bill excepted, I rarely read plays. I visit the theatre at least once a month though; a good performance can offer up more insights than a dozen read-throughs IMHO.

That said, I am a huge fan of Michael Frayn - Noises Off is one of the funniest things I have ever seen - a farce about staging a farce - 2 hours+ without taking a complete breath. Copenhagen, by contrast, is the tale of the meeting of physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg in Nazi occupied Denmark, dealing with the morality of whether it is right to continue atomic research "for the sake of scientific knowledge" even though Hitler is after an atomic bomb - powerful stuff. Interestingly enough, he also wrote the screenplay for John Cleese's film "Clockwise" - an underrated comic masterpiece.

[blp]

Ionesco, Pinter, Beckett, John Webster, Pirandello, Alfred Jarry, Albee, Mamet.

[Asa Adams]

hello, great thread! I love Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest." It is a lovable comedy, and i would definatly reccommend that. Also David Mamet's "American Buffalo." Enjoy!

[mono]

I tend to agree with all of the above, and must repeat, and add a few contributions: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, Heinrich von Kleist, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Miller, and many of the ancient Greeks, like Sophocles, Euripides, and Aeschylus. :)

[byquist]

Ibsen - Lady from the Sea
all Chekhov
Williams - Night of the Iguana
Rostand - Cyrano
Ionesco - Rhinocerous
Shaffer - Equus
Gazzo - Hat Full of Rain
Chase - Harvey
Miller - All My Sons
Shisgal - Luv
Shepard - True West
Inge- Bus Stop
Rice - Street Scene
?? - The Rainmaker
Wilson - Burn This
Giraudoux - Madwoman of Chaillot and Ondine
Medoff - When You Comin' Back Red Rider
?? - The Petrified Forest
O'Casey - Juno and the Paycock
Gilroy - The Only Game in Town
Saroyan - The Time of Your Life
?? - The Front Page
?? - Educating Rita

[lavendar1]

Our Town - Thornton Wilder

Pygmalion, Arms and the Man - G.B. Shaw

Chekhov, of course

Playboy of the Western World - Synge

and for something different, Yeats' 'Noh' influenced plays, like At the Hawk's Well

...and I just thought of The Little Foxes - Hellman

[genoveva]

This is an attempt to integrate more drama into my reading... :nod:



I guess I should have said that this is an attempt to integrate more drama into my life! :p

Wonderful suggestions, thanks! Keep them coming.

[lavendar1]

I must confess that, Shakey Bill excepted, I rarely read plays. I visit the theatre at least once a month though; a good performance can offer up more insights than a dozen read-throughs IMHO.


I couldn't agree more. Drama is performance.

[loveliterature20]

Ibsen - Lady from the Sea
all Chekhov
Williams - Night of the Iguana
Rostand - Cyrano
Ionesco - Rhinocerous
Shaffer - Equus
Gazzo - Hat Full of Rain
Chase - Harvey
Miller - All My Sons
Shisgal - Luv
Shepard - True West
Inge- Bus Stop
Rice - Street Scene
?? - The Rainmaker
Wilson - Burn This
Giraudoux - Madwoman of Chaillot and Ondine
Medoff - When You Comin' Back Red Rider
?? - The Petrified Forest
O'Casey - Juno and the Paycock
Gilroy - The Only Game in Town
Medoff - When You Comin' Back Red Rider

wow, you are awesome...you really know a lot of dramas... :nod:

[Boris239]

I'd recommend Chekhov's "Cherry Orchard", "Three sisters" and "Dyadya Vanya"
some of Brecht plays, Moliere's plays are very interesting, especially "Tartuf". From the less known Russian playwrites I'd reccomend Eugene Schwarz- his plays are awesome, especially "To kill a dragon" and "Shadow".

[blp]

Eliot's The Cocktail Party isn't bad, though I prefer his verse dialogue Sweeney Agonistes. Not sure if it was ever performed as a play, but it easily could have been.

[Theshizznigg]

I like the works of P.G. Wodehouse. The plays always carry a light hearted supersilliousness to them of a bygone era. I also love all of the antics, that his characters seem to get themselves into.

Another work that I can honestly recommend, I did the lighting for the production.
Is Brighton Beach Memoirs, by Neil Simons, which follows the life of Eugene Morris Jerome through his young teenage life. The two sequels follow him as he joins the army, and later becomes a broadway producer.
Unfortunately where I live, the outlet for live theater is often almost non-existent :(
So I do not get to support the arts as much as I'd like.

[Miss Smilla]

LOL! Asa, is there anything you like that i don't? 'Importance of being Earnest' Is the most wonderful piece of theatre that i've ever seen. (although to tell you the truth i'm quite starved of the medium). I've read a little about Brecht and his methods which i found fascinating, but i've never actually read his works. Can anyone recommend a particular play of his?

[superunknown]

Plays I've read or seen and liked:

All Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, King Lear, Henry IV Part 1, Othello, The Tempest
Arthur Miller - The Crucible, After the Fall, Death of a Salesman
Oscar Wilde - The Importance of Being Earnest
Samuel Beckett - Waiting for Godot
Moisés Kaufman - The Laramie Project (really, really good modern play)
Moliere - L'ecole des femmes (The School of Women)
Jean Giraudoux - La guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu (The War of Troy Will Not Take Place)

I have to read a play by Federico Garcia Lorca for my AP Spanish Lit over the summer. I haven't started on it yet, though. I'm thinking of getting The Complete Works of T.S. Eliot. His poetry's great, but are his plays any good?

[Asa Adams]

Miss Smilla, it is eerie! lol. send me a pm of things you want to know about lit or theatre you havent seen/read/studied.

cheers

[Jarndyce]

What, no love for Eugene O'Neill?

O'Neill is absolutely worth any read you want to give him. Iceman Cometh and Long Day's Journey Into Night are incredible works.

I'm glad to see that Sam Shepherd has been mentioned.

Mamet may be the best American playright of his generation. The man is freaking brilliant.

[Hyacinth Girl]

How about Aristophanes' "Lysistrata"? Funny stuff, that. Also, his "The Clouds" is worth a try. Also recommend Tom Stoppard - "Rosencranz and Guildenstern are Dead", "The Real Inspector Hound", and "Travesties", which is a parody of Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" (LOVE that Wilde play!).