Top 5 Plays of the 20th Century
In response to http://brixtonbrood.livejournal.com/61013.html. Only two Nobel Prize winners, and a list that I was quite surprised to end up with. It shows a certain preference for funny plays with clever ideas; I can't imagine wanting to go so see many that don't fit into this category more than once. There are too many plays that are unpleasant and/or depressing for me to enjoy watching them at the theatre. They're also all (except one) postwar and mostly written in English (the two that aren't are French); this is because my foreign language skills are virtually non-existent: I still speak French with the Norfolk accent I was taught at school.
1) Tom Stoppard, Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. I just think Tom Stoppard's plays are brilliant, and this is the best as far as I'm concerned. I thought about putting others on the list, but perhaps that wouldn't be fair. It also has a great film version, adapted by Stoppard himself.
2) Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot. Must be the only play written by a Nobel laureate to contain a Laurel and Hardy hat swapping routine, and therefore worth including in the list for that alone. But there are lots of other good things about it, too.
3) Michael Frayn, Noises Off. This is the funniest play on the list, and it's not so much the idea (a play about backstage at a theatre could hardly be considered original) but the way its done that makes it great. His other plays have dated a lot, and I can't stand his novels, but this makes up for them. This time, don't bother with the film version.
4) Joe Orton, What the Butler Saw. I hesitated between this and Loot. Like Noises Off, it's a clever farce, even if not as shocking now as it was originally. I'd definitely rather see this than Romans in Britain.
5) Jean Paul Sartre, Huis Close. The only one that isn't a comedy, but the great idea puts it on the list. It can be summed up in it's most famous quotation, "Hell is other people".
It's far too long since I've been to the theatre.
1) Tom Stoppard, Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. I just think Tom Stoppard's plays are brilliant, and this is the best as far as I'm concerned. I thought about putting others on the list, but perhaps that wouldn't be fair. It also has a great film version, adapted by Stoppard himself.
2) Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot. Must be the only play written by a Nobel laureate to contain a Laurel and Hardy hat swapping routine, and therefore worth including in the list for that alone. But there are lots of other good things about it, too.
3) Michael Frayn, Noises Off. This is the funniest play on the list, and it's not so much the idea (a play about backstage at a theatre could hardly be considered original) but the way its done that makes it great. His other plays have dated a lot, and I can't stand his novels, but this makes up for them. This time, don't bother with the film version.
4) Joe Orton, What the Butler Saw. I hesitated between this and Loot. Like Noises Off, it's a clever farce, even if not as shocking now as it was originally. I'd definitely rather see this than Romans in Britain.
5) Jean Paul Sartre, Huis Close. The only one that isn't a comedy, but the great idea puts it on the list. It can be summed up in it's most famous quotation, "Hell is other people".
It's far too long since I've been to the theatre.