Thursday, August 9, 2007

Your Turn Thursday

I just finished reading a play, The History Boys by Alan Bennett. Plays are quite different from novels and nonfiction. This one was okay. Didn't jump off the page. I would get so much more by seeing it performed. A play that breaks my heart and says something that no other written work has ever said to me before is The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers. The words just fall off the page onto your lap and soak you with sadness. You don't have to see it being performed. You feel every page.

What plays have you enjoyed reading?

Have you seen them performed, too?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I loved No Exit, by Sartre, and I also enjoyed A Man for All Seasons. I've never seen either performed, though I have seen the movie version of Man for All Seasons. A play I would really like to see performed is Children of a Lesser God. As I was reading it, I felt I had no idea of space, time, or who knew who. It was puzzling. I hope that a performance version would clarify some things. DRD

Christine said...

DRD, didn't we read Our Town together? That's another play I enjoy.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, we read that one. I really liked it. Haven't thought about it in a while. Ought to give it another look-see. DRD

Anonymous said...

I don't think I really like reading plays. I find the stage directions a bit too blunt and, um, direct...

Anonymous said...

Half the time I just gloss over the stage directions and figure out what's going on by the dialogue. Come to think of it, maybe that's why I had trouble with Children of A Lesser God . . . DRD

Don said...

Don't read too many plays but, Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco and
Happy Birthday, Wanda June By Kurt Vonnegut were both powerful and entertaining.

Anonymous said...

Um...I like WATCHING plays...

:)

I feel I should be twirling my hair and blowing a bubble as I say this...

Anonymous said...

Sidenote of amusement: growing up, for a long time I thought "Don Quixote" was Donkey Hote. Yup.

P.S. Man of La Mancha is a great play. (Yes, I know it was a book.)

*sigh* I'm no good at this game.

Anonymous said...

^^Haha, at least you didn't think Don Quixote was "Don Quicksoat."

~Lisa

Anonymous said...

The Bard, of course! Always more fun to see than read. Favorite experience would have to be at Spring Green in WI, an evening performance of The Tempest.