Play thread

[Anonymous No.14975419]

What plays have you read recently anons? Rec your favourite plays

Read titus andronicus recently and it was incredibly mediocre

[Anonymous No.14975470]

>>14975419
I am reading a play by Shakespeare every day. So far I have read
Titus Andronicus
Timon of Athens
The Comedy of Errors.
Today I will read A Midsummer Night's Dream

[Anonymous No.14975478]

Haven't read a play since Hamlet, but I have had tis pity she's a whore in my bookshelf for a few years now, is it any good?

[Anonymous No.14975493]

I hate reading plays. Nothing but dialogue? No thanks. I have very little imagination so I need the author to do the heavy lifting in that regard by telling me how the scenery looks, what the characters are wearing, etc etc

[Anonymous No.14975722]

>>14975419
L'avar - Molière

[Anonymous No.14975879]

>>14975478
decent, give it a read if you have it already

>>14975493
I mostly read fiction but one play a week, I like the different style

[Anonymous No.14976708]

The only play I've read this year is The Red Beads, which is a translation of an old Yiddish play. I plan to read more after I read Backwards & Forwards, which is about reading and interpreting plays from the point of view of a creative theatre professional - written by a former director of the Guthrie. I'm hoping the short book turns out to be insightful (and I've only heard good things), because I hardly ever read plays otherwise. I just read them if I've seen them live or on screen, for the most part.

[Anonymous No.14976741]

>>14975493
naturalist playwrights like strindberg give very clear details/instructions on how the scenery, stage, props should be and what the character dresses and looks like. you realize how useless that info is.

is biff the most most authentic representation of a Chad in literature? (why tf does he give his characters such stupid names?)

[Anonymous No.14976828]

>>14975493
That's what Tennessee Williams does all the time. Even when I used to hate theatre in general, I always enjoyed reading his plays.

>>14975419
I've been reading french plays this month. Most of them sucked and I'm glad I'm back to reading Shakespeare (Twelfth Night)
- Ruy Blas, Victor Hugo: for some reason I can never take Hugo seriously. Didn't like it.
- Le Philosophe sans le savoir, Sedaine: I knew it wasn't good, just wanted to see what a minor 18th century play looks like. Well yeah it's boring (quite modern though, in that it all takes place in a bourgeois home ; family drama)
- Turcaret, Lesage: decent comedy dated 1709. But not as good as Regnard when it comes to minor comedy playwrights.
- Montserrat, Emmanuel Roblès: terrible short play, it seems that Roblès is a poor man's Camus. Moral dilemmas, political violence, rebels etc. I can't stand this bullshit anymore and was very disappointed because the play is decently popular.

[Anonymous No.14976901]

>>14976708
>reading and interpreting plays from the point of view of a creative theatre professional
sounds interesting, Ill give it a read

>>14976828
havent read any french plays, any good ones?
>I can never take Hugo seriously
Why? I really like some of Hugo's stuff although it is quite entry level

[Anonymous No.14977590]

>>14976901
I haven't read a lot of Hugo but it always seems that good guys are good and bad guys are bad. This is the kind of thing that I just can't stand. From a strictly 'psychological' point of view Hugo stands very, very low. Then again I haven't read him much.

>french plays, any good ones?
Tragedies rely a lot on poetry so they're probably not as enjoyable as comedies when translated. The Barber of Seville (Beaumarchais) and most plays by Molière are definitely worth reading.

Also some time ago I happened to read what seems to be a Russian classic called Woe From Wit, dunno if it's that famous outside Russia but it was really good. Reminded me a lot of Molière's The Misanthrope.

[Anonymous No.14977981]

[Anonymous No.14978349]

>>14977590
>Tragedies rely a lot on poetry so they're probably not as enjoyable as comedies when translated
tragedies rely on plot and character to fulfill their tragic function. comedy relies on wit and wordplay for their humour (as well as situational plot designs), which is harder to translate.

[Anonymous No.14978504]

>>14978349
this appears very true when I think of Shakespeare, much less of a guy like Racine whose tragedies basically consists in people standing there speaking poetically. There's also a wide range of comic devices; I may not remember correctly but I'm pretty sure that Molière's prose can be translated in a way that maintains most of the comic effects. It would be actually relevant to take a deeper look into great comedies throughout history and see if their authors can be categorized depending on how massively they rely on wit and wordplay. I remember enjoying a lot Aristophanes through translations; for some reason I always found it more difficult to get a grip on Greek tragics.

[Anonymous No.14978535]

just read the importance of being earnest
pretty good but far from Wilde's best

[Anonymous No.14979942]

>>14975493
>how the scenery looks, what the characters are wearing
You're supposed to read the bits in italics too

[Anonymous No.14979966]

>>14977981
God Robards is so amazing in the Lumet version. The intensity of his Hickey is unmatched. Anyone who hasn't seen this play should watch it.

[Anonymous No.14980007]

>>14979966
It is worth it to hunt down the DVD of this. Robards makes a great Hickey. He’s also great as Jamie in Lumet’s version of Long Day’s Journey into night.

[Anonymous No.14981514]

>>14979942
kek

[Anonymous No.14982228]

Found these charts, are they any good? Thinking of making a new one, gib play recs

[Anonymous No.14982231]

[Anonymous No.14982237]

Does anyone know where to get plays from? Not many of the contemporary ones on the cart are on libgen

[Anonymous No.14983092]

>>14982228
>>14982231
As far as I can say these charts are pretty good
A few additions that feel necessary:
La Locandiera, Goldoni
Woe from Wit, Griboyedov
(probably no Pushkin, but worth debating)
Ubu Roi, Jarry
A play by Ionesco, perhaps Rhinoceros (popular and oh so absurd) or Exit the King (much better imho)

[Anonymous No.14983305]

Based Ibsen

[Anonymous No.14983312]

>>14983305
hedda gabler was terrible i even saw it performed and it didnt help