nice to find out what the Dimes Square kerfuffle was all about. it's the strongest play in this collection and the one that also best approaches beingnice to find out what the Dimes Square kerfuffle was all about. it's the strongest play in this collection and the one that also best approaches being an overall play. i really like Gasda's writing but i can't imagine actually watching the rest of these plays, you'd get bored of them pretty quick. ...more
This was my first saunter into the plays of Mamet and I can't help but feel I took a wrong turn. Nothing in this collection really wowed me, in fact tThis was my first saunter into the plays of Mamet and I can't help but feel I took a wrong turn. Nothing in this collection really wowed me, in fact the only works that I warmed to were the final two, The Water Engine and its companion piece Mr. Happiness. Mamet's plays are overwhelmingly heterosexual. Straight men saying horrible things very quickly. It's quite tiring....more
The monologue that started it all. Almost exhaustingly funny and refreshingly debauched. It cannot be denied that the television adaptation of FleabagThe monologue that started it all. Almost exhaustingly funny and refreshingly debauched. It cannot be denied that the television adaptation of Fleabag has helped define an era, so it's interesting to see how it began. The monologue is essentially the first series of the show, but incredibly pared down to roughly an hour of dialogue. Fleabag's approach to life is chaotic but also wincingly relatable. Waller-Bridge really read us all for filth....more
Sondheim's first Broadway show for which he did lyrics and music. It isn't a score I revisit very often, mainly because it just isn't great. The only Sondheim's first Broadway show for which he did lyrics and music. It isn't a score I revisit very often, mainly because it just isn't great. The only songs that have managed to have any legacy outside of the show and usually the only numbers I listen to are Comedy Tonight and Everybody Ought To Have A Maid. I don't think anybody would call this a great Sondheim show but it is a nice document of what he was doing before he became the grand seigneur of musical theatre. ...more
When Matthew Lopez’s play The Inheritance opened in the West End in 2018 it caused most critics to completely lose their minds. The Telegraph opined tWhen Matthew Lopez’s play The Inheritance opened in the West End in 2018 it caused most critics to completely lose their minds. The Telegraph opined that it is ‘perhaps the most important American play of the century so far' and caused the critic to lament the flimsiness of star ratings. The Evening Standard deemed it ‘the play of this year and last year and quite possibly next year as well'. Even Michael Billington liked it. Although he did have problems with the ‘exclusive maleness' and the more graphic descriptions of homosexual lust, which one can only put down to that generation of critics’ penchant for veiled homophobia.
Genuinely a bit taken aback by how.....not well Angels in America works as a text. It's really a work that has to be seen, and endured. Millennium AppGenuinely a bit taken aback by how.....not well Angels in America works as a text. It's really a work that has to be seen, and endured. Millennium Approaches still quite clearly the stronger of the plays, Perestroika still too meandering and arduous but nonetheless a good counterbalance. I'd love to do a production of Angels where every heavy-handed symbol is announced by a klaxon and a flashing blue beacon like that one from The Bill. Then at the Oliviers I'd stealthily but gracefully vomit my guts onto Jez Butterworth. Jonathan Pryce would watch on in complete adulation....more
In this collection of three of Pirandello's plays, including his most famous work Six Characters in Search of an Author, a common question threads itsIn this collection of three of Pirandello's plays, including his most famous work Six Characters in Search of an Author, a common question threads itself through each: what is real and what is fiction?
In Six Characters in Search of an Author, a family of 'characters' invade the rehearsal of a play and demand to find an author. 'One is born to life in many forms,' the father says 'as a tree, or a stone, as water, a butterfly... or as human. And one can also be born as a character.' These characters are stuck without a text.
The whole play is a musing on what is real and what isn't, and to some extent the role of the author, AND begs the philosophical question of what happens to characters outside of their author's text? There's a lot going on. I feel I need a good lecture series on the whole thing. But it is enjoyable if you're into the whole Theatre of the Absurd stuff.
My favourite play in the collection was the second play, Henry IV. It involves a man who receives a head injury and believes himself to be Henry IV (the German one, not the French one or the English one). So, all his family and friends dress up as characters from the era of Henry IV, decorate his house to look like a palace, and all play along with his fantasy. Doctor after doctor visits him but nobody can cure him.
I found Henry IV to be a more competent musing on 'characters'. Each character in this play is playing another character for the amusement of the supposed King Henry. They're all acting a play within a play. It is also a meditation on madness and begs the question, who is really mad? Henry IV or the people who play along with his fantasy? This was a really stellar play.
The final play is an odd drama. So It Is (If You Think So) involves two characters who try to claim that the other is insane, due to the particulars of a marriage. Then all the other characters spend the rest of the play trying to figure out which one is actually sane and telling the truth and which is lying and insane. It's something of a farce-cum-detective play about, once again, madness and people believing their own lies. (I've a feeling Pirandello has a thing about madness and the nature of fiction eh?)
So It Is (If You Think So) is the weakest of the bunch but is still a fine play.
Overall this collection is a nice little compendium of probably Pirandello's best-known works. I feel I could probably hold my own in a conversation about Pirandello now (which will probably never happen but *just in case*). ...more
I usually do a bit of research before reading one of Shakespeare’s plays. Y’know, read over a brief summary and go through the characters and stuff. MI usually do a bit of research before reading one of Shakespeare’s plays. Y’know, read over a brief summary and go through the characters and stuff. Measure for Measure being the last play in my intense catch-up effort I decided to skip all usual preamble and just go in blind. And I absolutely adored it. Measure for Measure is one of my ultimate favourite plays of this challenge. Claudio is arrested for getting a prostitute pregnant and is sentenced to be executed. Meanwhile, the Duke has left town (but in reality he has just disguised himself as a Friar in order to spy on his own people) and the evil Angelo is put in charge of the town. Meanwhile, Claudio’s sister Isabella goes to Angelo to beg of him not to execute her brother. Angelo hesitates but comes up with a deal, if Isabella gives him her virginity he won’t execute Claudio. BAM. This play is fucking brilliant.
Measure for Measure balances on the threshold of tragedy and comedy. One scene may have the brilliantly evil Angelo doing something brilliantly evil and the next scene may contain a barrage of Pompey’s utterly hilarious one-liners. This is just such a perfect play. I have no idea why this is one of Shakespeare’s least popular works. We get 1,001 different film versions of Romeo and Juliet every year but yet there is still to be a major production of Measure for Measure. I cannot praise this play any higher, it’s an utter masterpiece....more
Even the mere mention of that title sends me into a coma. The story of Troilus and Cressida, like a lot of Shakespeare’s tragedies, borrows its plot fEven the mere mention of that title sends me into a coma. The story of Troilus and Cressida, like a lot of Shakespeare’s tragedies, borrows its plot from ancient times (you might remember it from The Iliad). We follow Troilus and Cressida as they fall in love and… wait a minute… Troilus and Cressida are barely in this play. This play should actually be called Ulysses Orates Another Fucklong Speech. Seriously. Most of Troilus and Cressida follows the generals and leaders of the Greek and Trojan forces as they plot against each other. It’s a play about guys talking about militaristic strategies. My fave!
Troilus and Cressida is just a mess. The only redeemable mote of goodness in this play can be found in the character of Thersites. He’s utterly brilliant. He’s our comic relief and literally just takes the piss out of every character and every scene. I wouldn’t have got through this play without him. I can call this play boring and I can call it arduous but I can never call it bad, purely because of Thersites. However, maybe Shakespeare should have left this story with Homer....more
I remember actually studying Twelfth Night but I don’t think I actually read it. I hope my lecturers don’t read this blog. One of Shakespeare’s most sI remember actually studying Twelfth Night but I don’t think I actually read it. I hope my lecturers don’t read this blog. One of Shakespeare’s most successful comedies, Twelfth Night concerns Viola who survives a shipwreck but thinks she has lost her twin brother. She decides to disguise herself as a man and enter the court of the Duke. Another plot follows Malvolio and the tricks played on him. Shakespeare has played with the idea of twins and cross-dressing before (in The Comedy of Errors and The Two Gentlemen of Verona respectively). Malvolio’s plot is the better plot, in my opinion, because it is just hilarious. Malvolio’s attempted wooing of Olivia is one of Shakespeare’s funniest scenes.
The crossdressing of Viola seems kind of strange because there isn’t an overall explanation as to why she does it. She just arrives in Illyria and is like, ‘huh I guess I better dress as a guy!’ It’s a strange plot hole. I do think Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare’s better comedies but, like in The Merry Wives of Windsor, there is a mean streak running through the play. Like Falstaff, Malvolio is the butt of a joke played by a large part of the cast and at the end of the play he runs off cursing the lot of them. Why is everyone so mean to Malvolio? Yes, he’s a bit slow and a bit dim but really doesn’t deserve what happens to him. Apart from these qualms, Twelfth Night is a good and funny play. (Also, Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry’s Globe production is phenomenal)...more
Ah yes this little play. Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest play with most productions hitting the four hour mark. I’m sure you all know the plot but herAh yes this little play. Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest play with most productions hitting the four hour mark. I’m sure you all know the plot but here it is anyway. Hamlet meets the ghost of his father who tells him that his uncle killed him in order to usurp the throne and marry his wife. Hamlet spends the whole play complaining about it. The end. Hamlet is not only regarded as Shakespeare’s greatest play but also one of the greatest plays of all time. Meh. It’s good. The problem with Hamlet is that it’s about Hamlet a.k.a. the most annoying character in all of English literature. I spent the majority of this play sighing whenever I read, ‘Enter Hamlet‘, or when I saw he had another navel-gazing soliloquy coming up.
I’m genuinely incredibly curious as to why this is considered Shakespeare’s greatest play. To me it was just another average one for Shakespeare. Hamlet is really a play for the minor characters. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern steal every one of their scenes, the same can be said for Ophelia, the Ghost and even fucking Yorick. I did overall enjoy Hamlet, it’s one of Shakespeare’s best constructed plays. There aren’t any of the filler scenes that really permeated a lot of the early plays and I found it to be one of the easier plays to read. However, the 1590s equivalent of Holden Caulfield takes some getting used to....more