Classics for Beginners discussion

As we all know, Shakespeare is the most well known classic playwright, but has anyone read or watched a play which is created by anyone else?

I enjoy reading and watching plays by George Bernard Shaw, Chekhov and Moliere. Those are playwrights that come immediately to mind. I would prefer to watch plays by these writers than those by Shakespeare.

What kind of plays are they?

There's also Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco. I'd rather watch Beckett than Shakespeare, but that may only be because I'm still more familiar with Shakespeare and so the freshness of his plays are long gone for me.

The film version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is good. I think you can stream it from netflix. Some of the Beckett on Film stuff is on youtube.

Henrik Ibsen, one of his most popular plays is The Wild Duck. I enjoyed reading this one and I have plans to get to know Ibsen's works better. Also plays by Molière and Goethe's Faust are brilliant.

Of course, you have Tennessee Williams and Eugene O'Neill. Plays are pretty easy to read too. Maybe we should have a month for reading plays by a particular person.

And the Greek and Roman playwrights; translations can be as dry as bones sometimes though. One of my favorite things is Stravinsky's Oedipus rex; you can see a terrific version on youtube. Unfortunately it's not subbed though.

Michael wrote: "There's also Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco. I'd rather watch Beckett than Shakespeare, but that may only be because I'm still more familiar with Shakespeare and so the freshness of his plays ar..."

I have to disagree, the film of RaGAD is the worst film I have ever seen.

Why didn't you like it?

Chekhov's already been mentioned but a further mention doesn't hurt. Then I second Tennessee Williams particularly A Streetcar Named Desire.

There's Arthur Miller with his The Crucible in particular. There's Twelve Angry Men and of course my personal favourite is Oscar Wilde and his plays.

I'll repeat Oscar Wilde, especially The Importance of Being Earnest and Lady Windermere's Fan.

For Moliere, I can highly recommend Tartuffe.

Michael wrote: "Why didn't you like it?"

I admit partly because I was watching it at college on a projector screen and the blinds were broke (have been for years) therefore don't close and I basically watched a blank screen as many of the scenes are dark. Also I didn't much like the casting and think that the director Tom Stoppard missed out the best parts of the play. I found it was very difficult to watch though it is to be expected as it isn't plot driven.

After the first few minutes I didn't think I'd like it either but it grew on me. As for Stoppard's choices, I thought the movie adhered pretty closely to the play but he certainly had to make some sacrifices in order to translate it to film. I'm not sure who else would've been familiar enough with the play to do so. I thought Goldman was particularly good in it.

For anyone who's interested, the film version of The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade is on youtube (also netflix). It's terrific.

I thought the 'scientific discoveries' were funny but wanted to see the chase scene between Hamlet and R & G when they try stop him with their belts. I thought the Players were strange.

He chose to add the convo with Hamlet which was missed out of the book when they 'play questions' with him but loose.

I haven't read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, but I enjoyed the film very much. I think all character were well played and amazing in their own way. Roth and Oldman are incredible together.

To the classic plays I'd add Le Cid by Pierre Corneille.

☯Emily wrote:
For Moliere, I can highly recommend Tartuffe."
Also L'Avare is very entertaining. It was made into a pretty good film starring Louis de Funes.

Other than musical theater, no. However, I did download a production of Barefoot in the Park by Neil Simon as performed by L.A. Theater Works and loved it.