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| re: NYT: The Great Work Continues: or not ... | |
| Posted by: NewtonUK 05:42 am EDT 06/01/18 | |
| In reply to: NYT: The Great Work Continues: The 25 Best American Plays Since ‘Angels in America’ - MockingbirdGirl 08:10 pm EDT 05/31/18 | |
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| I've seen, luckily or unluckily, the 25 plays on the NYT list. A great colleague who ran a major European repertory theatre for many years once tolde me that he considered a great play to be one that was produced by theatres all over the world. Like ANGELS IN AMERICA. Every country had good plays, that only they perform, but these should not be confused with gIreat plays - like ANGELS, DEATH OF A SALESMAN, etc. ANGELS is a great, sprawling, messy play, produced all over the world, turned into an opera. Is there a play on this eclectic, politically correct NY Times list that is even close to being in this class? RUINED and THREE TALL WOMEN for sure. THE WOLVES? CHAD DEITY? Really? The former was a terrific kinetic production of an ok play. The latter - well the less said the better. If these are the best 25 AMERICAN plays since ANGELS, then I worry for Americal playwriting. |
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| re: NYT: The Great Work Continues: or not ... | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 06:47 pm EDT 06/01/18 | |
| In reply to: re: NYT: The Great Work Continues: or not ... - NewtonUK 05:42 am EDT 06/01/18 | |
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| There is much good to be said for Chad Deity. It gleefully pushes the boundaries of what theater can do and who it is made for. It is a more honest reflection of American culture than most of what gets produced in New York. It offers a bold, viscerally exciting examination of very difficult questions about how America chooses to classify and contain people of color. It's a serious play that doesn't take itself seriously, and so it's a lot of fun while having much more to say than any number of talky, issue-driven plays. As for your larger framing about what gets produced globally, I think we have to be careful about presuming that the only reason a play doesn't travel is because of quality. Many plays are culturally specific in ways that make them less appealing to foreign audiences. |
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