I’ve heard about The History Boys as a film, and I *believe* the film is on Netflix. The Chancellor saw it and liked it pretty well. So when I realized it had been a play first (thanks to my National Theatre sampler) and that it starred Dominic Cooper (I really, really like him as an actor), I decided that it was time to read it and see if it would be something I could add to my burgeoning teaching syllabus. The History Boys takes places […]
A play about physics, but not about physics.
In my binge on plays after viewing the sampler from the PBS special, I included Michael Frayn’s 1998 play Copenhagen, which promised to be set during World War II. As it turns out, the play is far more complicated than that. Based on historical figures and an actual historical event, Copenhagen covers the relationship between scientists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, with feedback from Bohr’s wife Margrethe. The play opens in an indeterminate time, because all three characters have died and are now talking in […]
A gay fantasia, indeed.
Two or three years ago, The Chancellor showed me the HBO film Angels in America, and I was intrigued, saddened, and deeply moved all at once. And then PBS aired a special of the UK’s National Theatre performances, which included a scene of Dominic Cooper and Andrew Scott (Moriarty!) performing a scene from the play. The special made me really curious about all the contemporary American and British plays out there–we’ve all read Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill and Tom Stoppard, so I thought it […]
A trivial comedy for serious people
Thirty-first book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. Yet again, I have taken up a play by Oscar Wilde and yet again, I’m amazed by the layer upon layer of depth and meaning that the satirical work contains. You wouldn’t think that a comedy of errors would have anything to offer in the way of moral commentary or philosophical meanderings, but when you’re reading Wilde, you better expect profundity in his most trivial statements. This is a play about two men who pretend to […]
(Another) depressing entry by another American author
I read The Glass Menagerie in college, but somehow missed out on the crazytown show that is A Streetcar Named Desire. I’m telling you, these American writers did not get hugged enough as kids. And now they’re taking it out on me. I knew very little about Streetcar before I read it, but I do remember something about a young and beautiful Marlon Brandon yelling “STELLAAAAAAA!” And really, the play is quite simple in concept: Blanche DuBois is a faded Southern belle who comes to […]
Delightfully poignant
Twenty-sixth book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. Well of course, Oscar Wilde doesn’t need a stamp of approval. But I feel compelled to talk about his work because I don’t want anyone to miss the pleasure of reading him. And the best thing is that most of his work is available on project Gutenberg. The first book by him that I read, was The Picture of Dorian Gray. The book shook me so much that I couldn’t complete it. It was real and it changed my perspective on […]