Re: RAT The Sassies!!!!

["Donna Sherritt" <ohbelladonna@hotmail.com>]

I've got to say, I agree with you wholesale--about each of these plays, and 
about your arguments in submitting them.  I couldn't have said it better 
myself, especially about Chekhov.  I find each of his plays delightful, 
heartbreaking, inspiring, and timeless.  While Ibsen and Strindberg often 
astound me, it's usually when I'm reading them for a graduate seminar.  I 
have yet to see a production of work by either of these playwrights that has 
stayed with me the way The Cherry Orchard has, or, more so, The Seagull.

And, as a student and performer of Shakespeare, I have to say the Henry 
plays are astounding both in a personal, psychological way, and politically. 
  But in these plays, brilliantly, the politics are personal.  When you 
perform, or watch, a play about kings, and you know that there is no such 
thing as an ex-king, or an ex-queen, the turns the characters take to 
preserve their place on the throne is often gut-wrenching.  Politics bore 
the ever-lovin' daylights out of me, but when I see these plays, or read 
them, or perform them, the politics become a prince's, or a queen's, or a 
king's attempt to stay alive.  You realize that everyone is fighting for 
their life.  What stakes!

I second these nominations!


>From: DgSWEET@aol.com
>Reply-To: rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com
>To: rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com
>Subject: Re: RAT The Sassies!!!!
>Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2000 14:01:19 EST
>
>In a message dated 01/13/2000 12:34:40 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>NOMADMONAD@aol.com writes:
>
><< The Cherry Orchard.  1904.  Okay.  Chekhov was at the cusp of the 
>century,
>  even though he's usually classified as a 19th century playwright.  So 
>what
>  makes you believe Cherry Orchard is more important than Vanya or Sea Gull 
>or
>  Three Sisters?  And if I had to vote for a 19th century playwright who in
>  some seminal way led theater into and through the 20th, I would go with
>Ibsen
>  or Strindberg.  Ibsen's last work When We Dead Awaken is an excellent 
>play
>on
>  which to study that century to turn.  The Dream Play by Strinberg 
>connects
>  with Freud and much more of the new century's obsessions.
>
>+++ You're welcome to go with Ibsen and Strindberg.  I find attending them
>too often a duty.  I find Chekhov a continual pleasure.  And if you were to
>poll contemporary playwrights, I have little doubt that you would find that
>most would name Chekhov as a primary influence.  (There was an article on
>this subject somewhere recently called, I believe, "And, Of Course, 
>Chekhov,"
>in which a batch of very dissimilar playwrights all citec Chekhov as their
>inspiration.)  Ibsen certainly was important in opening the stage to new
>subjects, but his stuff plays almost as dated as much of what he wrote to
>destroy -- including some of the worst and most heavy-handed exposition
>written by a major writer.  Strindberg?  OK, gang, how many of you have
>actually seen or read DANCE OF DEATH?  Thank you.  Now, how many of you 
>have
>seen CHERRY ORCHARD.  I thought so.  My theory -- it's hard to be 
>influenced
>by a work if you haven't read it or seen it.
>
>  <<HENRY IV, pys 1&2.   ???  What's here that no one else has seen?
>
>+++ No one else?  You mean, like Orson Welles and Ralph Richardson?  HAMLET
>may be the most profound investigation of an individual's psychology, but 
>the
>HENRY IVs are not only psychologically profound, they are politically
>sophisticated and paint a portrait of the upper and nether levels in 
>society
>and how they interact.  To my mind, much more complex, richer stuff.  And I
>would vote for Falstaff as the great Shakespearean character.  Shakespeare
>seems to have been pretty fond of him: second only to Margaret, he appears 
>in
>more plays by Shakespeare than any other character (HENRY IV, pts 1&2, 
>MERRY
>WIVES) and is shadow hangs over a fourth (HENRY V).
>
><<< Lear, Macbeth, Tempest all seem better contenders.
>
>+++ To you, to you.  Frankly, I prefer RICHARD II, KING JOHN and WINTER'S
>TALE to these.  My opinion.
>
>  <<<< As for your 90's nomination "too soon to tell."    Who wrote that 
>and
>where
>  was it produced?  I never heard of it.
>
>+++ Oh, a joke.  Yes, amusing.
>
><<< You will need to elaborate on your nominations otherwise the Committee
>will
>  sentence you and your opinions into the dustbin.
>
>++++ Ouch, ouch.  Though, ya know, I think I've done enough creditable work
>to be able to talk my way out of most dustbins.
>
>----------------------------------
>Jeffrey Sweet
>Resident Playwright, Victory Gardens Theatre
>Faculty, Actors Studio at the New School
>Council, the Dramatists Guild of America
>http://members.aol.com/DgSWEET/index.html

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