Favourite play(s)?
- Thread starter Scott_Younger
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Neil LaBute's "The Shape of Things" smacked me across the face when I first read it. Though I enjoyed the movie version, sadly I never got the the chance to watch the actual play live.
"Closer" was another jaw-dropper, but for different reasons.
For more current plays, I think Tracy Letts' "Killer Joe" was a spectacular read, and the movie well done as well.
For all-time nods? Aside from Shakespeare/Marlowe, Tennessee Williams gets my vote, especially "Streetcar." Of all plays I've read, "Streetcar" with Brando as Stanley is the one I most wish I had seen live.
As a counterpoint to the thread, the play I think is over-hyped, though religiously listed in top-100 favorite lists is "Waiting for Godot." So lazy in its structure and lackluster for entertainment--at least my entertainment. I've only read it, never seen it produced and have heard it is so much better when seen rather than read, especially if a clever director finds a new way to present it. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and abstain from proving them wrong.
"Closer" was another jaw-dropper, but for different reasons.
For more current plays, I think Tracy Letts' "Killer Joe" was a spectacular read, and the movie well done as well.
For all-time nods? Aside from Shakespeare/Marlowe, Tennessee Williams gets my vote, especially "Streetcar." Of all plays I've read, "Streetcar" with Brando as Stanley is the one I most wish I had seen live.
As a counterpoint to the thread, the play I think is over-hyped, though religiously listed in top-100 favorite lists is "Waiting for Godot." So lazy in its structure and lackluster for entertainment--at least my entertainment. I've only read it, never seen it produced and have heard it is so much better when seen rather than read, especially if a clever director finds a new way to present it. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and abstain from proving them wrong.
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Favorite plays
One of my favorites is one which, seriously, I doubt anyone here has heard of.
It is The Puritan (sometimes also known as The Puritan Widow). The author was probably Thomas Middleton. It was published in quarto in 1607.
It is hilarious at times.
Also quite good is Ben Jonson's Every Man in His Humor, from 1598.
These plays, like all others from that era (including Shakespeare's), are difficult to read until you have spent some years dealing with the language. But, once you learn enough not to have to struggle with every line, the works from that time are very enjoyable.
One of my favorites is one which, seriously, I doubt anyone here has heard of.
It is The Puritan (sometimes also known as The Puritan Widow). The author was probably Thomas Middleton. It was published in quarto in 1607.
It is hilarious at times.
Also quite good is Ben Jonson's Every Man in His Humor, from 1598.
These plays, like all others from that era (including Shakespeare's), are difficult to read until you have spent some years dealing with the language. But, once you learn enough not to have to struggle with every line, the works from that time are very enjoyable.
A Doll's House
Another Part of the Forest
Little Foxes
Taming of the Shrew
No Exit
The Glass Menagerie
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Enemy of the People
Summer and Smoke
Miss Julie
Street Car Named Desire
The Tempest
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Another Part of the Forest
Little Foxes
Taming of the Shrew
No Exit
The Glass Menagerie
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Enemy of the People
Summer and Smoke
Miss Julie
Street Car Named Desire
The Tempest
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
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Actors and directors love Becket because you can do whatever you want with it and make it amazing.
I have studied plays at university, but apart from Hamlet and the Tempest, and maybe Twelve Angry Men I can't think of any I'm really in love with. I probably preferred Hedda Gabler to A Doll's House,
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Congrats, Gringa! What a broad range of plays. Most of us, myself included, have our favorite plays in a fairly narrow range of genre.
GP101: I agree with you on Godot. Have read it several times and saw an amateur production of it many years ago. Can't think of any reason to see it again, professional or not.
Doug B
GP101: I agree with you on Godot. Have read it several times and saw an amateur production of it many years ago. Can't think of any reason to see it again, professional or not.
Doug B
We just got tickets to "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time." I loved the book and can't imagine how it'll translate to stage. We shall see, eh?
Maryn, heading for Broadway, but not soon enough
Maryn, heading for Broadway, but not soon enough
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'night, Mother, Bent, That Scottish Play (all three college productions), The Rocky Horror Show (saw a touring production and the Broadway revival with Joan Jett as Columbia [guitar solo, rather than tap dance] and had Dick Cavett tell me to blow it out my ass after one of the catcalls), The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (saw original Broadway tour), Chicago (saw a revival tour. Sandal Bergman of Conan the Barbarian was the one cast member I recognized. She was a featured dancer and perhaps the tallest member of the cast), Victor/Victoria (got to see it in previews when it opened in Minneapolis and really wished they'd made action figures and playsets [and really didn't like the replacement for one of the original songs that made the official soundtrack]), and The Mousetrap (a regional production and the London production, performance #20,526 in 2002, its 50th anniversary year).
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Molière's Tartuffe, BY FAR. I have a list of favourites as long as my arm, though. A Streetcar Named Desire and Noises Off are also near the top. (-:
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Some great choices here guys! Feel free to say what plays you'd recommend to others, sharing is caring and all that. ;D
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I've read a lot of great plays, but these will probably stay with me forever:
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - Tom Stoppard
Medea - Euripides
A Doll's House - Henrik Ibsen
Hedda Gabler - Henrik Ibsen
Saint Joan - George Bernard Shaw
Macbeth - Shakespeare
Doctor Faustus - Christopher Marlowe
Proof - David Auburn
Doubt - John Patrick Shanley
Death and the Maiden - Ariel Dorfman
True West - Sam Shepard
A Lie of the Mind - Sam Shepard
Buried Child - Sam Shepard
A Streetcar Named Desire - Tennessee Williams
Sweet Bird of Youth - Tennessee Williams
Oleanna - David Mamet
Long Day's Journey Into Night - Eugene O'Neill
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds - Paul Zindel
Oedipus Rex - Sophocles
No Exit - Jean-Paul Sartre
Mother Courage - Bertolt Brecht
Musicals:
Pippin
Oliver!
The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd
Into the Woods
Company
The Fantasticks
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - Tom Stoppard
Medea - Euripides
A Doll's House - Henrik Ibsen
Hedda Gabler - Henrik Ibsen
Saint Joan - George Bernard Shaw
Macbeth - Shakespeare
Doctor Faustus - Christopher Marlowe
Proof - David Auburn
Doubt - John Patrick Shanley
Death and the Maiden - Ariel Dorfman
True West - Sam Shepard
A Lie of the Mind - Sam Shepard
Buried Child - Sam Shepard
A Streetcar Named Desire - Tennessee Williams
Sweet Bird of Youth - Tennessee Williams
Oleanna - David Mamet
Long Day's Journey Into Night - Eugene O'Neill
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds - Paul Zindel
Oedipus Rex - Sophocles
No Exit - Jean-Paul Sartre
Mother Courage - Bertolt Brecht
Musicals:
Pippin
Oliver!
The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd
Into the Woods
Company
The Fantasticks
The king of plays is Oedipus Rex for me, but I also aaaaaadore Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (a great play that's not as emotional or clever as R+G but great fun is Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound). Runners-up are Measure for Measure and Philip Ridley's The Pitchfork Disney.
I will be quite predictable and name Shakespeare's eternal masterpiece "Romeo and Juliette" as my favourite play.
I love innocence and purity of this story.
To be honest, I cried when I watched it for the first time.
Actors really lived the play.
I love innocence and purity of this story.
To be honest, I cried when I watched it for the first time.
Actors really lived the play.
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There's a quartet of great plays set in the North of England:
When We Are Married - J.B. Priestley
HindleWakes - Stanley Houghton
Spring and Port Wine - Bill Naughton
and the sublime "Hobson's Choice" by Harold Brighouse.
I'm surprised no-one seems to have mentioned "The Duchess of Malfi," or "She stoops To Conquer" and "A School For Scandal." And of course, there's always "Peer Gynt."
When We Are Married - J.B. Priestley
HindleWakes - Stanley Houghton
Spring and Port Wine - Bill Naughton
and the sublime "Hobson's Choice" by Harold Brighouse.
I'm surprised no-one seems to have mentioned "The Duchess of Malfi," or "She stoops To Conquer" and "A School For Scandal." And of course, there's always "Peer Gynt."
To add to my previous favorites list (and I can't believe I forgot him to begin with), I'll throw in David Mamet's American Buffalo and Glengarry Glen Ross. Dialogue spectacular.
EmmaLoerick
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Djanet Sears' Harlem Duet. And it's a musical, but Adam Guettel's The Light in the Piazza is my all time favourite theatre piece.
Hamlet- Shakepeare
Death of an Anarchist- Dario Fo
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf- Edward Albee
Faust- Goethe
To name a few.
Death of an Anarchist- Dario Fo
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf- Edward Albee
Faust- Goethe
To name a few.
Kingfisher Days - Susan Coyne
The Trespassers - Morris Panych
Eurydice - Sarah Ruhl
Wanderlust - Morris Panych (and Robert Service)
And truly the most stunning production of The Taming of the Shrew I've ever seen. Not a Shakespeare I would have expected to adore, but that production stole my heart lock, stock and barrel. It turns out that story has a whole different meaning when the leads have so much chemistry you can see them fall in love at first sight.
(Normally I would second the vote for Noises Off, but I've never found a stage version of it that I love as much as the movie. Sacrilege, I know, but you just cannot beat that cast.)
All of mine are tied to specific productions I've seen rather than plays that I read for the pleasure of it.
The Trespassers - Morris Panych
Eurydice - Sarah Ruhl
Wanderlust - Morris Panych (and Robert Service)
And truly the most stunning production of The Taming of the Shrew I've ever seen. Not a Shakespeare I would have expected to adore, but that production stole my heart lock, stock and barrel. It turns out that story has a whole different meaning when the leads have so much chemistry you can see them fall in love at first sight.
(Normally I would second the vote for Noises Off, but I've never found a stage version of it that I love as much as the movie. Sacrilege, I know, but you just cannot beat that cast.)
All of mine are tied to specific productions I've seen rather than plays that I read for the pleasure of it.