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Benedict Andrews: Collected Plays
Benedict Andrews is an internationally renowned theatre and opera director, a film-maker and a poet. This volume presents the first collection of original plays by a theatre-maker at the top of his game. Includes the plays Like A Sun, Every Breath, The Stars, Geronimo and Gloria.Introduction by Marius von Mayenburg.
305 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 12, 2016
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November 2, 2023
“I don’t write well-made, easily digestible plays ... All my plays have a kind of proposition about the theatre. The play will demand or suggest or invite with big questions from the people making it.”
I read this collection of 5 of auteur Andrews plays following a deep dive of the plays of Marius von Mayenburg, as Andrews has collaborated and directed the German playwright's plays - and von Mayenburg even provides the introduction to this volume. They share similar theatrical aesthetics, although I found Aussie Andrews work a bit less accessible and understandable, at least in an initial read-through.
The volume contains two short works, the monologue 'The Stars', which concerns a grossly fat man pontificating and weaving a bizarre story while eating and being watched by a silent young girl - haven't really a clue what that was all about. 'Geronimo' is an even shorter ensemble piece, purporting to be the conversation of the Navy Seal team sent in to eliminate bin Laden (whose code name was Geronimo) - it's formatted with just the lines following one after another, with no attribution to specific characters, which non-specificity lends it a rather odd, trifling quality.
The longer works I felt much stronger. Although his first work, 'Every Breath' got scathing reviews (see below), it is probably the most 'naturalistic' of his works, and I found it quite intriguing, and since I could understand it, was probably my favorite of the batch. Oddly the central character of Chris is written to be performed by a male actor, but in the premiere, directed by the author, an actress was cast in the role.
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/...
'Like a Sun' keeps changing direction in each of its four scenes, but gets more interesting and enigmatic as it goes along.
'Gloria' takes that fragmentation even further and has a bravura title role that any actress would kill to sink her fangs into.
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/...
https://www.auditoriummag.com/gloria
All in all, I was fascinated by Andrews' dramaturgy and would love seeing any of his full-length works performed - although the two examples of his direction I've seen - the film 'Una' and the proshot of his production of 'A Streetcar Named Desire starring Gillian Anderson - both left me cold.
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/201...
I read this collection of 5 of auteur Andrews plays following a deep dive of the plays of Marius von Mayenburg, as Andrews has collaborated and directed the German playwright's plays - and von Mayenburg even provides the introduction to this volume. They share similar theatrical aesthetics, although I found Aussie Andrews work a bit less accessible and understandable, at least in an initial read-through.
The volume contains two short works, the monologue 'The Stars', which concerns a grossly fat man pontificating and weaving a bizarre story while eating and being watched by a silent young girl - haven't really a clue what that was all about. 'Geronimo' is an even shorter ensemble piece, purporting to be the conversation of the Navy Seal team sent in to eliminate bin Laden (whose code name was Geronimo) - it's formatted with just the lines following one after another, with no attribution to specific characters, which non-specificity lends it a rather odd, trifling quality.
The longer works I felt much stronger. Although his first work, 'Every Breath' got scathing reviews (see below), it is probably the most 'naturalistic' of his works, and I found it quite intriguing, and since I could understand it, was probably my favorite of the batch. Oddly the central character of Chris is written to be performed by a male actor, but in the premiere, directed by the author, an actress was cast in the role.
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/...
'Like a Sun' keeps changing direction in each of its four scenes, but gets more interesting and enigmatic as it goes along.
'Gloria' takes that fragmentation even further and has a bravura title role that any actress would kill to sink her fangs into.
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/...
https://www.auditoriummag.com/gloria
All in all, I was fascinated by Andrews' dramaturgy and would love seeing any of his full-length works performed - although the two examples of his direction I've seen - the film 'Una' and the proshot of his production of 'A Streetcar Named Desire starring Gillian Anderson - both left me cold.
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/201...
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