Plays and Playwrights

[Mara]

I've been hoping you'd pop in and add some commentary. I'm reading Chekov's The Cherry Orchard this week. Any quick thoughts from anyone? Haven't started it yet, probably will read it in its entirety tomorrow (that's something I love about this drama class thus far: the ability to read a play in one sitting, though I'm sure that will change as we progress, especially with some of the selections on the syllabus).

Generally speaking, I really like it. It seems to be one of those plays were production means a lot-- I've seen it three times. One was brilliant, one was passable, and one was horrifically, unremittingly boring.

For a few years in college I was convinced I wanted to rewrite this play and set it in the post-Civil War South.

[lovejuice]

I've been hoping you'd pop in and add some commentary. I'm reading Chekov's The Cherry Orchard this week. Any quick thoughts from anyone? Haven't started it yet, probably will read it in its entirety tomorrow (that's something I love about this drama class thus far: the ability to read a play in one sitting, though I'm sure that will change as we progress, especially with some of the selections on the syllabus).

My boring reply is that I love it, but that can apply to almost every Chekov's I have read. Yet I remember very little about it. Somehow his plays don't have that personal warm quality that leaves a mark in your memory.
(Unless, of course, you actually sit through one.)

[Sven]

I like Monty Python's adaptation:

[youtube]7_ofPVUhO3U[/youtube]

[Spinal]

I don't really understand the appeal of Chekhov. I'm not being very helpful in this thread, I suppose.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I don't really understand the appeal of Chekhov. I'm not being very helpful in this thread, I suppose.

I actually wasn't a fan. As an example of symbolism, I understand its historical relevance, but outside of that I didn't find much to like. It walked the line between farce and tragedy, but didn't succeed in either genre. It wasn't funny enough as a comedy, and lacked any sympathetic characters to bring an emotional core to the tragedy. It was a fairly bland reading. Perhaps seeing it performed live, where one or the other genre is stressed would help, but as is it was a massive disappointment.

[Mara]

As far as Chekov goes, I do prefer "Uncle Vanya." If you get a chance, try that one. If it doesn't speak to you, you might just not really like Chekov.

[Hugh_Grant]

I actually wasn't a fan. As an example of symbolism, I understand its historical relevance, but outside of that I didn't find much to like. It walked the line between farce and tragedy, but didn't succeed in either genre. It wasn't funny enough as a comedy, and lacked any sympathetic characters to bring an emotional core to the tragedy. It was a fairly bland reading. Perhaps seeing it performed live, where one or the other genre is stressed would help, but as is it was a massive disappointment.

I'm just seeing this post now. I taught The Cherry Orchard before in a 200-level drama class, and they loved it for some reason. (I also showed them part of the Charlotte Rampling/Alan Bates adaptation.) Since I'm in the middle of a Russian literature unit in World Lit (Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Chekhov), I'm teaching The Cherry Orchard again. One thing I remember my drama students appreciating was the historical context of the play.

[dreamdead]

I remember thinking that "The Three Sisters" was the best of the Chekhov I read (that, and "Uncle Vanya") back in undergrad. I thought it appropriately captured the sense of ennui, and thought Chekhov's voice modulated perfectly between gender relations, political critique, and overt symbolism.

I should re-read them at some point. I don't think I ever actually read "The Cherry Orchard" all the way through...

[Kurosawa Fan]

I'm just seeing this post now. I taught The Cherry Orchard before in a 200-level drama class, and they loved it for some reason. (I also showed them part of the Charlotte Rampling/Alan Bates adaptation.) Since I'm in the middle of a Russian literature unit in World Lit (Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Chekhov), I'm teaching The Cherry Orchard again. One thing I remember my drama students appreciating was the historical context of the play.

I'm pretty sure this is the first piece of Russian lit that I haven't downright loved. I guess the streak had to end sometime.

[lovejuice]

Hedda Gabler kind of blew my mind. Such an unusual examination of sexual politics and the role of women in a patriarchal society, especially for the time it was written. If this is indicative of Ibsen's talents, I'm all in.

Ibsen's main classics, that and The Master Builder, are indeed great. Glad you're enjoying him so much.

Weird maybe, but I consider Hedda and Hilde to be an anti-thesis of one another. I love both plays, and find it fascinating that Ibsen could write two characters so opposite in nature during a span of merely two years.

[lovejuice]

Treat myself to some lesser known Shakespeare's, and Pericles turns out to be just wonderful. The very first scene is so immense -- perhaps among the most powerful of Shakespeare -- that it casts the shadow over the whole play. The structure of the play itself is very non-Shakespearean, and delightfully so.

[Irish]

Lear.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episod...-the-play/487/

[Raiders]

Lear.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episod...-the-play/487/

Yeah... I'm all over that. Greatest thing ever written.

[Irish]

Yeah... I'm all over that. Greatest thing ever written.

It's streaming on Netflix too. I read the play in high school (English class), but had never seen any kind of performance of it.

This is McKellan backed by the Royal Shakespeare Company, with minimal sets and costumes.

It really is completely amazing, and one of the greatest things mankind has ever produced.

[amberlita]

A new acting core started doing free plays at this grassy amphitheater behind my apartment (which is basically just this little island in the middle of a pond that is literally a 45 second walk from my door). Last year they did Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew. This year it's The Tragedy of King Lear. Pretty excited. I've never read it and I really enjoy experiencing Shakespeare on the stage that I'm unfamiliar with. They're running Scapin right now as well but haven't gotten a chance to see either though I've mostly just been anticipating the former. Anybody seen or read the latter have some thoughts?