| Author | Message | ||
     Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
I'm ashamed to say that I've only just started reading Miller's work. Got put off him at school, having to study the one about the witch trials, which I didn't enjoy. But recently I read All My Sons and A View From The Bridge - both brilliant. Interesting parallels with Ibsen's early work, particularly The Wild Duck and Pillars of the Community. Any fans here? | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
I saw The Crucible performed at the Welsh College of Music and Drama last year. It was brilliant. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
All I remember of that play is a load of screaming women. I was probably too young to understand what it was all about. I'll give it another go. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.0.9.161 |
I'm not a great lover of the theatre, but it blew me away. There are themes cleverly woven throughout the play that are still relevant today. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.143.25 |
I've seen Death of a Salesman, The Crucible and A View from the Bridge - all good stuff. You like Pinter, Gary? | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
I tried him once, but didn't get it. Again, probably too young. I must try him again. I love Ayckbourn. Ayckbourn was involved in Pinter's first plays as an actor, you know. Just reading Ayckbourn's biography - that surprised me. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
From what I've read, Griff, Miller seems more relevant today than ever: he wrote about celebrity culture, immigration, and war profiteering. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.98.9.4 |
The Crucible is one of those plays that, if done properly, is one of the most amazing experiences you can have in a theatre. But if it's done wrong, even just slightly off, turns into a load of old crap. It's one of the most difficult plays to perform. Done wrong it can be just screaming women. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.240.88 |
What makes the difference, I think, is whether it's done with a sense of the underlying themes or just as a murder/adultery melodrama. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.240.88 |
Pinter is superb but you need a strong, intense production to bring out the ambiguities and suggestive power of the writing. 'No Man's Land' is a bleak metaphysical nightmare, 'The Birthday Party' a grim study of persecution, 'One For the Road' an exploration of the psychology of a torturer, 'Betrayal' a really bitter portrait of the dangers of love. Pinter's a very adult writer. Too many people dislike his work because the meanings and message are not immediately obvious. His main aim is to shake the audience up and make them worry. Which means his work has a lot in common with weird fiction. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Has anyone seen the movie adaptation? | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.148.96.124 |
Les Dennis was in Clive Barker's early plays, you know. What an image. | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
I saw Brian Dennehy in "Death of a Salesman" in New York a few years ago - a stunning performance. I'd won the tickets, else I'd never have gone (was put off the play in drama school), but instead of the dated, bland production I was expecting, I thought it was truly exceptional. Though honestly, how much is down to good writing and how much credit goes to Dennehy - hard to say. Weber's dead right about The Crucible too. I've seen it both ways. The film version with Daniel Day-Lewis gets it wrong from the very first scene. Have to confess I've never read Pinter, though Joel's sold me on checking him out now! | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.209.204.109 |
I liked the BBC version of 'The Crucible' from about 20 years ago (Daniel Massey was in it). More amusing to all and sundry here I am sure will be the image of my all-boys school putting on a performance of it which we did when I was in the fourth form. I wasn't in it as I wasn't goody enough | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.143.25 |
My all-boys school put on a version of R. C. Sheriff's THE LONG SUNSET, which had a profound effect on me. Until that point (and I was, after all, only thirteen or so) I'd presumed theatre to be boring, and I found the performances and story absolutely spellbinding. Forty years ago... | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
Theatre at its best is peerless. I've seen some memorable stuff. I used to work at the J B Priestley Centre for the Arts in Bradford and loved my time there, stage-managing, propping (up the bar, most nights), and even acting in a production of King Lear (raucous knight - I'd been preparing for the role since my 16th birthday and I was old enough to order fruit juice which had been fermented prior to its kegging). | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
"propping (up the bar, most nights)" :-) Raucous night? I've had (too) many of those... | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.215.49 |
Reading plays (like reading film scripts) is never as worthwhile as seeing them. I'm told that a recent Open University supervisor teaching a Shakespeare course insisted his plays were meant primarily to be read, not seen. What a tosspot. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.215.49 |
What was your role, Gary? I'd have expected you to appear in ROMEO AND JULIET. As the Friar, of course. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.92.216.182 |
'Reading plays (like reading film scripts) is never as worthwhile as seeing them.' But they're good fun- you can curse the bloody director for the lack of vision or poor staging. :-) I remember watching the Hoffman film version of Death of a Salesman, and realizing how irrelevant a cinematic version is of this. More power to the play. Willy Lowman is a great and sad Miller character. A great play that one. Enjoyed watching Twelth Night at the Barbican. Amazing bloody acoustics there. You could literally hear a whisper on stage from the very back, and chatter amongst the audience just disappeared. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
The Barbican is a great venue - I saw Gary Sinese in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest there. Outstanding. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.92.216.182 |
Gary Sinese has done some good work. Loved him in Forest Gump as the bitter double amputee, and he was Ok in The Stand- or rather he was great- The Stand TV Version was not so hot but enjoyed it..., and then he had that lead role in that really weird Philip K Dick flick- Imposter- what a strange picture that was... | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
Strange is good. We like strange. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.97.17 |
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is my absolute favourite. And Niki - quite. Strange is the new weird :>) |