The sunshine boys: a comedy in two acts. عنوان: پسران آفتاب [نمایشنامه]، نویسنده: نیل سایمون؛ ترجمه: آهو خردمند، نشر: تهران، دیگر، ۱۳۸۲، در ۱۰۲ ص.، موضوع: نمایشنامه آمریکایی قرن ۲۰م.
Marvin Neil Simon was an American playwright and screenwriter. He wrote more than 30 plays and he received more combined Oscar and Tony nominations than any other writer. He was one of the most reliable hitmakers in Broadway history, as well as one of the most performed playwrights in the world. Though primarily a comic writer, some of his plays, particularly the Eugene Trilogy and The Sunshine Boys, reflect on the twentieth century Jewish-American experience.
You can't go wrong with a Neil Simon play. You even forget that it is a play and not just an ordinary book or extraordinary book. And his humor lifts the spirits. Or should I say, your spirits. That is Just in case you need them lifted.
2 old geezers get together for 1 last act. Vaudeville at its best. But 1 does not like the other.1 or both of them will end up in an old actor's rest home. I rather think that they should both end up in the same room in the same Rest home.
My father started me watching films in my single digits, and Walter Matthau was a God among actors to me. If I read it now, I might rate this less, but as a teen-it was great!
کاملا اعتقاد دارم یک نمایشِ خوب می تونه یک اثرِ متوسط رو تبدیل کنه به یه اثرِ دل نشین و عالی و دل چسب ! یه دوره ایی شبکه چهار هر هفته تله تئاتر می گذاشت ، یکی از این تله تئاتر ها همین اثر آقای سایمون بود . با بازی مهدی هاشمی ، مرحوم احمد آغالو ، مهتاب نصیرپور و ... و چقدر چسبید این نمایش به من و چقدر دوستِش داشتم . خودِ نمایشنامه به معنی واقعی کلمه "بامزه" است . شاید بتونم بگم بامزه ترین نمایشنامه ایی که تا حالا خوندم ! تازه نمایش هم هی مرور می شد برایِ من تو حینِ خوندنش و اثر برام خنده دار تر و دل چسب تر می شد . خلاصه که اصن این ویلی و اَل عالیَن ! هم نمایشنامه رو بخونید و هم تله تئاترِش رو ببینید .
( برای ناشرِ ایرانی هم که انقدر طراحی رویِ جلدِ کتاب رو بد انتخاب کرده متاسفم ! )
This review contains spoilers if you read it closely! I read the edition published in 1973 by Random House. THE SUNSHINE BOYS premiered on Broadway in December, 1972. Neil Simon defined comedy of the sixties. Before he began his series of plays set in the thirties and forties, he reflected the times. Although THE SUNSHINE BOYS has its two main characters act out a skit they'd performed in vaudeville decades earlier, it is about their painful reunion as septuagenarians. The world they knew has disappeared. They can't agree on their memories; nor can they focus on the present, as they ignore the blaring TV and dread the muggings and stabbings beyond the window. In short, this is about old age in the present day, the present being, for the author of this play, 1972. I was twelve when this play was on Broadway. I remember ads for it in THE NEW YORK TIMES. In the years immediately before and after, I was taken to, easily, five different movies based on Neil Simon's plays. All of these were set in Manhattan (with an excursion or two into Los Angeles.) There was THE ODD COUPLE, PLAZA SUITE, THE PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE, LAST OF THE RED HOT LOVERS, THE HEARTBREAK KID and, toward the end of the seventies, THE GOODBYE GIRL. If you want to get a sense of how a middle-class New Yorker about forty to fifty years old talked in the mid-century, you can't go wrong reading any Neil Simon play from about 1967 to 1975. Or, see the movies based on these plays. When, around 1980, Simon started investigating the Depression of the 1930s, the plays were still good, but they didn't bear the aesthetic stamp of the "soaring sixties." One movie, from 1970, was written strictly as a movie, and is set largely in Manhattan as a married couple, vacationing there, try to navigate the chaos skyscrapers, speeding taxis and an exploding manhole cover. It ends with a jet plane reaching the heights. (The last line, cut for TV when the networks were first showing it, referred to hijacking.) A Neil Simon work of the late sixties or early seventies essentially embraced the American century. Even THE SUNSHINE BOYS, with one of its main characters being very down-and-out, has background figures who thrive at a TV network. Success is accessible to his characters at this point in his career. As our country's economic divide went into high relief in the eighties, Simon's plays began to deal with the remote past, when a higher percentage of people expected to struggle. If you've ever seen the opening credits to the TV series made of THE ODD COUPLE, you'll see the Affluent Society, as John Kenneth Galbraith called it in hus 1958 book about America's increasing wealth. Those opening credits capture the world Neil Simon wrote about when he was becoming the most recognized playwright of his day. The first scene of the first act of THE SUNSHINE BOYS is very realistic. The first scene of the second act is less so. It is in the second act's first scene that we see the old vaudevillians doing a dress rehearsal at a television studio. The idea is to show us two things: First: The old comedy team really did use to do professional comedy. Second: It is hopelessly dated. What I don't buy is that the network, in 1972, wouldn't have someone attending to the needs of the team. I think the play would have been better if the Sunshine Boys had been on their game at the TV studio and the power structure itself had done what it tends to do: Pull the rug out from under the heroes of yesteryear. To make myself clearer about this. I think the creative people around the two vaudevillians in the immediate moment of their TV reunion would assure a smooth performance. The suits would be the ones to deal the blow. I daresay that staging is crucial to making THE SUNSHINE BOYS work. I saw the 1975 movie when it came out. I don't think it captured the effortless humor Simon invested in the script of the play. I've never seen a stage production. Of course, the Random House edition I read has the advantage over the edition Goodreads shows, which is clearly for people planning to perform the play. The Random House edition is meant to be read by people the way a novel is read. Simon's stage instructions in this case are for readers, not actors. The instructions act as narrative. I imagine THE COLLECTED PLAYS OF NEIL SIMON includes the text as presented in the Random House edition. If you're looking just to read the play, look for that one, which is still in print.
I know Neil Simon through the films made of his plays back in the 1960s and ’70s. I saw a lot on TV when I was a teenager (liked them) and in my early twenties (no longer liked them). Simon’s plays are still revived, but I have the sense that they are not quite as popular as they once were. But while reading The Sunshine Boys I found a review of a London production from a few years ago: the reviewer was reasonably enthusiastic and made the point that while Simon had an original training as a gag writer, his plays shouldn’t just be thought of as a collection of jokes: the importance is that the gags come out of the characters or, to put it another way, the characters are built out of the gags. I think this is true and the two central characters in The Sunshine Boys are vivid creations. My doubt is that once they have been drawn in all their cantankerous glory, they don’t really develop. But maybe characters don’t have to develop as long as other aspects of the work are developing. But I don’t think this is happening in The Sunshine Boys. There is a situation and it is repeated. It is often repeated in amusing ways, but I can’t help feeling it is similar to a TV situation comedy. A chunk at the beginning of the second act is taken up with a routine where the two veteran comedians recreate a sketch they used to do on the vaudeville circuit for a TV special: I imagine this creates problems for a modern productions: for an audience in the early 1970s it might have seemed corny, but maybe had a certain nostalgic quality – for most of today’s audience it probably just seems archaic, a humour from a museum. (Although I’ve read that Simon has now written an alternative version...but I haven’t read or seen it so can’t comment.) The Sunshine Boys has some good comic lines and is quite fun if you are in the mood, but it is difficult not to think it will slowly fade away.
A really neatly constructed comedy by Neil Simon – 5M, 2F
Willie Clark is an old superannuated vaudeville actor who, when he is found work by his agent nephew Ben Silverman, can’t remember the lines. Ben, who looks in on Willie every week on a Wednesday, has, however, got a big proposal for his uncle. Radio wants to make a programme reviewing great theatrical performances, and they want to include Clark and Lewis’ time-honoured Doctor sketch.
But there’s a snag: Willie hates his former partner, Al Lewis, because he used to prod him with a bony finger and spit over him when he pronounced his ‘T’s. And because one night he just walked out of the act and left Willie high and dry.
And the play proceeds from there.
It is one of those plays that needs three main characters who can play it very fast: it’s American wise-guy wise-cracking stuff. I don’t mind that, but I wonder if – and maybe this is a dramatic strength – I’d get hugely frustrated by a really ornery Willie. Frankly, Ben does several times, and maybe he represents the audience in this respect and relieves their frustration: he tries to get his uncle to shut up, listen and see reason. However, Willie’s self-destructive cantankerousness and ancient resentment against Al, who is a much more conciliatory figure, is at once understandable in an old man desperately missing the limelight. But it is also deeply irritating.
Although I have that reservation, I nevertheless think the play is good entertainment and it grows more touchingly tender towards the end. It offers a sympathetic portrait of old troupers fading away with as much rage as they can summon against the coming of the dark.
Basic Plot: Two old vaudeville partners attempt a reunion for a TV special.
There are a lot of interesting moments in this, and I like the concept. These characters have a history that we see play out in front of us on stage. They worked together for decades, but never really learned to communicate with or understand each other in a positive way. It plays on old tropes and stereotypes. Some of it is cringe-y, but purposefully so. The antics of a vaudeville act back in the day would not be acceptable in the here and now, even when the "here and now" of the play is 1973. The banter between the main characters would be a fun thing to see/hear if done well. It honestly reminds me of Arsenio Hall and Eddie Murphy in Coming to America when they do themselves up as the two older Jewish men, which is an odd comparison, but is exactly what I see and hear in my head.
Simon is at the top of his game in this comedy about an aging pair of comics from the golden age of Borscht-belt comedy. They were hugely popular in their day, but also hugely dysfunctional, and now in their old age, given a chance to reunite on a television special and rejuvenate their careers, they can't stop trying to settle the old grudge. This is very funny unless you're the type who can't take a heavy dose of bittersweet.
I’ve wanted to read this play since Judd Hirsch and Danny Devito were in a production together several years ago. I kind of forgot about it until recently when I was scrolling through my TBR. I laughed out loud at a couple of lines, but I think reading it like a book takes away a lot of the nuance that’s meant to be there. I didn’t quite grasp the point of the play. I’d still be curious to see a production sometime.
Nehéz értékelni ezt a szöveget – kihívásra olvastam el, de annyiszor láttam már színházban/közvetítésben, hogy pontosan tudtam, miről szól… Nagyon jó látképet ad az öregedésről, a szemellenzőkről, a családi szeretetről, a partnerségről meg egy csomó minden másról, aki még nem látta/olvasta, annak ez egy jó kis olvasmány. (Én most untam.)
Simon gropes toward the logical extreme of the curmudgeon trope here. He gives us a portrait of a man who will not accept that his prime has passed, and who is bitter that his prime has passed. Ungracefully, he attacks everyone around him. This would be exasperating without the humor. Probably it works onstage since unapologetic extremes make for engaging theater.
Neil Simon is a comedic master. His wit, his timing, his goofiness make him the quintessential playwright. While he is known for classics as the ODD COUPLE and BAREFOOT IN THE PARK, there really isn't a dud in the bunch. SUNSHINE BOYS fires on all cylinders. It's just a great, funny play.
This is exactly what I want from a Neil Simon play--nostalgia for a certain age of show business that is also fun of fun, clever dialogue. I bet Amy Sherman-Palladino grew up on Neil Simon plays, because this reminded me so much of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Wonderful to finally read this play! Certainly my favorite of the Neil Simon plays I’ve seen/read. I loved the conceit of the play, and the two lead characters of Lewis & Clark were wonderful to spend time with.
Fantastic. A funny, emotional and very real comedy about old actors. I also appreciated the great (though expectedly interrupted) Vaudevillian scene included.
This one was just okay for me, there is nothing about the plot or dialogue that is all that special, but I can see with the right two actors how these characters could become extraordinary.
Human relationships are complex -- competitive, sentimental, frustrating and, as Neil Simon sees them, very, very funny. The comedy duo once known as The Sunshine Boys are a paradox -- a pair of aging vaudeville comics whose relationship over the course of some fifty years, is anything but sunny. Facing the challenges of growing old and becoming forgotten, the pair grasp at the chance to be in the spotlight one last time with varying degrees of enthusiasm. But can they overcome the long-held grudge of their bitter break-up long enough to make America laugh again?
Simon, a master of both comedy and pathos, examines the complimentary natures of the men at the center of this story: one a bitter curmudgeon who insists on the fiction that he is both independent and still in-demand as a performer, and the other having settled into the twilight of retirement in the purgatory of New Jersey. Simon looks at the psychology of comedy, at the heartbreaking nature of aging, and at the yin-and-yang of two old friends who seem to have nothing...and everything in common.
Playwright Simon provides neat character sketches of the pair at the center of this story, surrounding them with a collection of neat supporting characters like a neurotic nephew and a non-nonsense nurse. He gives us a glimpse of the "old days" by showing us a recreation of the old skit, while showing us the comedy that real life often unintentionally throws our way. Like many of the best of Simon's comedies, he will get you to laugh til you cry and cry til you laugh.
by Neil Simon Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre Buy Tickets Online
40 years ago Lewis and Clark were the biggest names lighting up the vaudeville stages. Now they will return to take center stage on television in a CBS special on the history of comedy. The only problem is they haven’t spoken in years.
Jerry Adler, last seen on CRT’s stage in the smash hit comedy I’m Connecticut,returns as Willie Clark.Richard Kline, of television’sThree’s Company makes his CRT debut as Al Lewis. Neil Simon’s writing and sharp one-liners provide non-stop laughs and a nostalgic glimpse of life on and off the stage. The Sunshine Boyscaptures the fading days of vaudeville, and provides a hysterical road map to the comedy of today.
I read this play in preparation for playing one of the two main roles. It's got some wonderful comedy between the old guys, and the farce scene, though dated and chauvinistic, still works pretty well. But it's overlong, and a lot of the first scene could be chopped down. The nephew acts as the old character's feed, or presents just exposition. There are also some curious casting issues: several of the actors barely appear for more than a few minutes, and even the nurse in the last act has only about ten minutes on stage. The economics of the modern theatre just wouldn't allow this kind of casting! LOL
The alternate title could have been "Two Jews Arguing"; which in turn constitutes about 98% of all show business...a very entertaining play, and a cynical but well-meaning love letter to the great vaudeville duos - particularly Weber and Fields, who are said to have served as the inspiration for the play.