Favourite Playwright

[Kneenibble]

Who, my dears, has the best dramatic corpus? Whose plays touch you like your first lover? Id est, who has wrought the best plays of all? either in terms of your own response and taste, or the criteria of form and High Art; either for what you've actually seen performed, or read as closet drama.

Just to milk out more interesting replies, may we say that for the purposes of this thread, Shakespeare does not count?

As for me, I would be torn between Tennessee Williams and George F. Walker (is he known outside of Canada, by the way?). The former is an indisputed genius, the latter is... is kinda like the stage version of the Coen brothers.

[Joran]

I've always been a fan of Tom Stoppard.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Arcadia, and Hapgood are the plays of his that I've read and I've seen Hapgood performed. Anyone who can combine espionage and quantum mechanics has a place in my heart.

Arcadia also included my favorite rebuttal to the challenge "I demand satisfaction!"

[YorickBrown]

old school: Aeschylus


new school: Tony Kushner

[golentan]

Who, my dears, has the best dramatic corpus? Whose plays touch you like your first lover? Id est, who has wrought the best plays of all? either in terms of your own response and taste, or the criteria of form and High Art; either for what you've actually seen performed, or read as closet drama.

Just to milk out more interesting replies, may we say that for the purposes of this thread, Shakespeare does not count?

As for me, I would be torn between Tennessee Williams and George F. Walker (is he known outside of Canada, by the way?). The former is an indisputed genius, the latter is... is kinda like the stage version of the Coen brothers.

Heard of him. I should preface by saying that I don't enjoy musicals, so most of the popular playwrights of the last century are out for me. Tennessee Williams was pretty good though. There are just too many playwrights, and I see too few plays to make a decision though (and most of the ones I do see are student written free shows. It would have been nice when you invited me to your play to let me know it would be one long screed against people you hate, interrupted for a break of pornography...)

[Satyr]

Berthold Brecht. Despite, and sometimes because of the somewhat heavy-handed political message and moraline overdoses.

[chiasaur11]

I've always been a fan of Tom Stoppard.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Arcadia, and Hapgood are the plays of his that I've read and I've seen Hapgood performed. Anyone who can combine espionage and quantum mechanics has a place in my heart.

Arcadia also included my favorite rebuttal to the challenge "I demand satisfaction!"

Gotta agree with the Stoppard love. Read a few of his plays, and I gotta say, the man knows what he's on about.

He also worked on an Indiana Jones film's dialogue. Can Shakespeare or Ben Johnson say that?

No.

[Starscream]

I've always been a fan of Tom Stoppard.

Agreed.

I also like Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare. I actually got to play Puck in high school. His speech at the end is still the only Shakespeare I know, other than the stuff everyone knows.

[Cyrion]

For simple entertainment in what I see on the stage, Sondheim.

For quality of the drama, Miller or Brecht. Although I also have to give a nod to Reginald Rose for Twelve Angry Men.

[Thufir]

I don't know as many playwrights as I should. But, of those I do know, Stoppard and Marlowe. I've read the majority of Stoppard's plays and really want to see some of them performed, or perform in them; I've read a few Marlowe plays and find the incredibly confident Marlovian heroes fascinating, with a special love for Tamburlaine. Marlowe also gets props for the fact Edward II includes what is practically a "Your face" retort. In the 16th century.

[Kallisti]

Shakespeare, Marlowe, Stoppard, and of course Oscar Wilde.

[Dr.Epic]

Shakespeare in that he's the only playwright I've ever had to read/see their work.

[Sneak]

I haven't seen/read too many plays other than Shakespeare, but I do enjoy Oscar Wilde.

[thompur]

Contemporary - Sam Shepard: I did "Cowboy Mouth" in college, and "True West" since. Great playwright.

Classical - Moliere(Richard Wilbur Translations-Brilliant): "The Misanthrope", "Tartuffe", "School for Wives"; all great plays

Honorable Mention(assuming good translation):Anton Chekhov, Sophocles, Ibsen.
Peter Shaffer: "Amadeus", "Equus" Oscar Wilde: "Ideal Husband", "Importance of Being Earnest"

[Tirian]

I'll throw in some love for August Wilson and Moliere.

And, of course, we should probably shut down the accolades for Oscar Wilde too because, dude.

[thompur]

I'll throw in some love for August Wilson and Moliere.

And, of course, we should probably shut down the accolades for Oscar Wilde too because, dude.

How could I have forgotten August Wilson? YES. Arguably the best playwright in the past thirty years! *Bad thompur, BAD!*
GOOD CALL TIRIAN!

[Kneenibble]

Thanks for replies, peeps. I agree about Marlowe -- saw a great student production of Faust recently, which conflated Marlowe's text with Goethe's and very well too.

Have neither seen nor read Stoppard. Will.


Berthold Brecht. Despite, and sometimes because of the somewhat heavy-handed political message and moraline overdoses.
You know, Mother Courage is a play I've read some 4 times, and then recently there was a big production of it that was just fantastic. It's always nice to see one of these oft-read and -studied plays alive and on its feet.


For quality of the drama, Miller or Brecht. Although I also have to give a nod to Reginald Rose for Twelve Angry Men.
Twelve Angry Men is a fantastic play. It was the first play I ever did, back in grade 7.


And, of course, we should probably shut down the accolades for Oscar Wilde too because, dude.
Because...? Because what? :smallmad:

[CurlyKitGirl]

And, of course, we should probably shut down the accolades for Oscar Wilde too because, dude.

. . .

'dude' what?
Y'see, there're many ways the 'dude' can be interpreted; trust me, I attended a lecture on tone and implicature, and at the moment, the 'dude''s first implication is negative.
Others aren't. So for the sake of the impossibility of conveying tone through written word without so good context, you'll want to add some context.

Favourite playwright?
Discounting Shakespeare as the OP asks us to, I take a great joy in John Webster, especially the Duchess of Malfi, so ridiuclously over the top and wonderful.
I also feel I'd enjoy Marlowe if I get my hands on his plays, so put him in the Maybe pile. Same with Oscar WIlde, I've seen very limited bits of Earnest; but if he's as witty as his prose (CHapter 11 of Dorian notwithstanding) I'd enjoy him greatly too.

Can we include Gilbert & Sullivan too?
Because I've been in/seen two plays personally, sung through two or three more and listened to a fair few scattered songs from their other plays. And I've so far loved all of them.

Ancient playwright (pre-0): Euripedes or Sophocles. Merely because I know their works best and even though I've had a volume of Aeschylus on my shelves now for a while I've yet to read it.

0 - 1000AD: [Free slot] Perhaps a ROman writer.

1000 - 1500: Chaucer! I quite like the sound of the author of the York Mystery Plays/N-Town Cycle.

1500 - 1600: Shakespeare (natch), Marlowe (presumably) and Webster

1600 - 1700: Shakesprea (natch) and Webster. Also Milton.

1700 - 1800: [blank]

1800 - 1900: G&S. [Provisionally Goethe as I've never read, nor seen any of his work, but I really want to read his Faust.]

1900 - 2010: Meh. Wilde, although I'd more class him in the previous category.

QUESTIONS:
Would playwright include script writer?
For a good few centuries poetry and drama were semi-related. If I argue a good reason for a poem-as-drama can that count?

[JonestheSpy]

A lot of my favorites have already been mentioned, but I'm a wee bit surprised nobody's mentioned Sam Shepard yet. Pretty much revolutionized American theater in the 70's and early 80's with Buried Child, True West, Savage/Love, and many others. He brought in a real rock and roll, gritty, badlands-western ethos to the stage.

[Tirian]

(on Oscar Wilde)


Because...? Because what? :smallmad:

Sorry that was unclear. I mean "Because, dude, The Importance of Being Ernest is pants-wettingly funny." I mean, it could be ... in theory ....

[thompur]

A lot of my favorites have already been mentioned, but I'm a wee bit surprised nobody's mentioned Sam Shepard yet. Pretty much revolutionized American theater in the 70's and early 80's with Buried Child, True West, Savage/Love, and many others. He brought in a real rock and roll, gritty, badlands-western ethos to the stage.

Sam Shepard's the first one I mentioned!:smallannoyed:

[Kneenibble]

QUESTIONS:
Would playwright include script writer?
For a good few centuries poetry and drama were semi-related. If I argue a good reason for a poem-as-drama can that count?

I would say a playwright could be a script writer, if you mean somebody like Hrotsvitha or Seneca.

As for the second, make your case, lady. Who do you mean exactly?


Sorry that was unclear. I mean "Because, dude, The Importance of Being Ernest is pants-wettingly funny." I mean, it could be ... in theory ....

When a trio of ladies from the UK performed the whole show among them last summer in the Fringe Festival here, it wasn't so much that it was bust-a-gut laughter, but it was clever and witty and they used the text to make very ticklish parodies of their own culture.

I'm still not entirely sure what you're attempting to say.

Salome remains one of my favourite plays of all time, and Russell's Salome's Last Dance one of my favourite good bad films, even though I wouldn't call Wilde my favourite playwright.

[JonestheSpy]

Sam Shepard's the first one I mentioned!:smallannoyed:

Dang, that's what i get for scanning - my apologies.

BTW, have you read Hawk Moon? While not a play, is great collection of short pieces and prose poems by Shepard, and some friends and I mined it for monologues back in high school and college.

[Lawless III]

I'm going to agree on Miller, Stoppard, Shaffer, and Tennessee Williams (his name is to awesome to not write the whole thing.)

My favorite play is Equus. I've been trying to get a local theatre to perform it, but apparently it's too risque. I might expect that other places, but I live in southern California, so I expected people to be a bit more open minded...:smallsigh:

Where do you get the plays you read? They're always ridiculously overpriced in bookstores.

[thompur]

I'm going to agree on Miller, Stoppard, Shaffer, and Tennessee Williams (his name is to awesome to not write the whole thing.)

My favorite play is Equus. I've been trying to get a local theatre to perform it, but apparently it's too risque. I might expect that other places, but I live in southern California, so I expected people to be a bit more open minded...:smallsigh:

Where do you get the plays you read? They're always ridiculously overpriced in bookstores.

When I used to get into NYC with relative frequency, I went to the Applause book shop and the Drama Book shop, which probably isn't a reasonable option for most of you. Pays and collections are generally priced the same in bookstores, the selection is usually slim. I also haunt used bookstores. Good ones will have a drama section.

I was in Equus once, in a Highschool summerstock production. It's really good, and was a lot of fun!

[Fifty-Eyed Fred]

I shall also give my accolades to Marlowe and Wilde. Both of them were excellent playwrights whose works I love (and I wish Marlowe had lived longer so he could've done more; at least he had an interesting death, which is more than most men receive).

I still think Faustus is better than anything Shakespeare ever did. *prepares for onslaught* :smalltongue:

[Dogmantra]

I'm going to have to go for any playwright that's not Harold frigging Pinter.

[Thufir]

Can we include Gilbert & Sullivan too?
Because I've been in/seen two plays personally, sung through two or three more and listened to a fair few scattered songs from their other plays. And I've so far loved all of them.

Oh, if we count Gilbert, then hell yes. I've got him on the list. But I think it would be just Gilbert and not Sullivan who would actually count as a playwright, since Sullivan was mostly just the musical side of things.


I still think Faustus is better than anything Shakespeare ever did. *prepares for onslaught* :smalltongue:

Nah. Better than some things Shakespeare did, but not all. Now if you'd said Tamburlaine I'd have to think about it.

[Mr._Blinky]

So happy about all the Stoppard love here, he was the first person I flashed to when I saw the title come up. In fact, my final project for my college Beginning Acting class is next week, and each student had to choose and perform a monologue. Mine? Henry from The Real Thing, which while very different from a lot of Stoppard's stuff is also amazingly well written.

[Kneenibble]

Nah. Better than some things Shakespeare did, but not all. Now if you'd said Tamburlaine I'd have to think about it.
I have to agree with Thufir on this point. Faust is gorgeous in its language, its structure, and the story is fantastic, yes. But the student production I saw, which as I mentioned wove together Marlowe's and Goethe's texts, worked so very well because the romance in the latter gave a certain human tragic element that is really lacking in the former.

No onslaught, Fiddy-eyed Freddy: in fact feel free to unpack your contentions on the matter.


I'm going to have to go for any playwright that's not Harold frigging Pinter.

Why?

The one show by Pinter in the Fringe Festival here last summer was, hands down, the absolute, utterly best piece of theatre I saw that year, very nearly approaching -ever-.

[truemane]

How have we gone this far without anyone mentioning Arthur Miller? Death of a Salesman? All my Sons? Married to Marilyn Monroe? Won a Pulitzer? He died only a few years ago.

But as much as I love Miller, and as much as Death of a Salesman is one of my favourite pieces of literature, my favourite dramatist is Tennessee Williams. At a walk.

I one saw a production of Night of the Iguana at the Stratford Festival in Ontario that was incredible. It was done on a full thrust stage, with the rooms in the hilltop hotel defined by lighting and scrim.

It was the most intense and immediate theatre experience of my life.

[Dogmantra]

I've had some bad experiences with Pinter, and having someone tell you how she worked with Pinter and oh he was so amazing and everything and that you should try and be more like him while you're trying to do your own work in, y'know, your own style isn't really conducive to creating absolute adoration of him.

EDIT: Add to that the fact that I absolutely do not find him funny at all.

[Kneenibble]

I smell a bruised ego. :smallwink:
Really, cupcake, aren't you a young teenager? You won't actually have your own style (assuming we're talking about either acting or writing) until you're at least a few footsteps into your 20s.

So now that that's put aside, I would ask a better reason than that you don't find him funny.


How have we gone this far without anyone mentioning Arthur Miller? Death of a Salesman? All my Sons? Married to Marilyn Monroe? Won a Pulitzer? He died only a few years ago.

But as much as I love Miller, and as much as Death of a Salesman is one of my favourite pieces of literature, my favourite dramatist is Tennessee Williams. At a walk.

I one saw a production of Night of the Iguana at the Stratford Festival in Ontario that was incredible. It was done on a full thrust stage, with the rooms in the hilltop hotel defined by lighting and scrim.

It was the most intense and immediate theatre experience of my life.
Actually Cyrion did say Miller, muffin. But your point is well taken.

It's interesting that most replies turn up English playwrights.
Mostly English (I know Wilde is technically Irish, but no.),
Some American,
A German, a French, and some classical nods...
1 Canadian... :smallfrown:

[Thufir]

It's interesting that most replies turn up English playwrights.

That's because the English are best. :smalltongue:
Though I should point out Stoppard was born Czech.

[JonestheSpy]

That's because the English are best. :smalltongue:
Though I should point out Stoppard was born Czech.

Actually, once you get past the 17th century, all the best English playwrights are Irish, though Stoppard does carry on the tradition of non-natives dominating the English stage.

Speaking of Czechs, Vaclav Havel is a wonderful playwright. Pretty righteous that he became the first president of the freed Czechoslovakia. And he appointed Frank Zappa "Special Ambassador to the West on Trade, Culture and Tourism," which would earn Havel massive props even if he wasn't so talented himself.

[Kneenibble]

Oh yeah! Wrote the Beggar's Opera, right? I've only read it, but what a great play. All I could think reading it was that I'd give a finger joint to act it.

[GeeVee]

A good production of Henrik Ibsen is always a sight. In a perfect world, I'd really love to see someone even attempt the second half of Goethe's Faust.

[Thufir]

Oh yeah! How did I forget Ibsen...? Excellent playwright.

At some point, I should really see some of these plays rather than just reading them...

[Raistlin1040]

My Top 4, in order

Christopher Marlowe
Oscar Wilde
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
William Shakespeare

[Hades]

Edmond Rostand. Cyrano de Bergerac. In French. Like so:


CYRANO: ...Je sais bien qu'à la fin vous me mettrez à bas;
N'importe: je me bats ! je me bats ! je me bats !
(Il fait des moulinets immenses et s'arrête haletant):
Oui, vous m'arrachez tout, le laurier et la rose !
Arrachez ! Il y a malgré vous quelque chose
Que j'emporte, et ce soir, quand j'entrerai chez Dieu,
Mon salut balaiera largement le seuil bleu,
Quelque chose que sans un pli, sans une tache,
J'emporte malgré vous,
(Il s'élance l'épée haute):
et c'est. . .
(L'épée s'échappe de ses mains, il chancelle, tombe dans les bras de Le Bret et de Ragueneau.)

ROXANE (se penchant sur lui et lui baisant le front):
C'est ?. . .

CYRANO (rouvre les yeux, la reconnaît et dit en souriant):
Mon panache.

[Quincunx]

Let me be low-brow here--I love a good translation of Aristophanes. (I'll even forgive that my favorites are translated so that parts of the chorus can be set to Gilbert & Sullivan songs.) This child of the Cold War can't help snickering when the lead character tries to sell the abundant local product. . ."Something you don't have and we have lots of. . .I have it! How about an informer? :smallamused:"

[truemane]

Actually Cyrion did say Miller, muffin. But your point is well taken.

Oh you. I go all gooey inside when you call me muffin.


It's interesting that most replies turn up English playwrights.
Mostly English (I know Wilde is technically Irish, but no.),
Some American,
A German, a French, and some classical nods...
1 Canadian... :smallfrown:

I was going to throw Morris Panych in there. My university did a wonderful production of Seven Stories my senior year and I consumed his canon over next year or so. But I wanted to stick to as few names as posisble. These threads sometimes (*cough*always*cough*) seem to devolve into masturbatory academic self-congratulation.

[Kneenibble]

I was going to throw Morris Panych in there. My university did a wonderful production of Seven Stories my senior year and I consumed his canon over next year or so. But I wanted to stick to as few names as posisble. These threads sometimes (*cough*always*cough*) seem to devolve into masturbatory academic self-congratulation.

Ooh, good one. That's another play I've only read and would sacrifice a joint to act in or see. That monologue about somebody being in his parking spot that turns out not even to be his office building is soooo good.

There's nothing like an academic circle-jerk, eh cupcake?


A good production of Henrik Ibsen is always a sight. In a perfect world, I'd really love to see someone even attempt the second half of Goethe's Faust.

Ibsen is indeed a fantastic playwright; but in my opinion, unless you have an ingenious director, his plays can lie on the stage like a cold, dead fish.

[Stubbed Tongue]

David Mamet. Awesome. Ever seen the movie Glengarry Glen Ross?

[Grimlock]

Hmmm, good question;
Tom Stoppard, David Mamet, Arthur Miller- "A View from the Bridge" is just wonderful, that impending sense of tragedy builds and builds and you know it's all going to end badly and there's nothing you can do about it- more tragic than any other of Miller's plays I think.

Glad to see so many people rating Stoppard and Miller, ("R&G are Dead" is one of my favourite plays). I find Wilde a tricky one, because although I like his work, other than "Earnest" the rest just isn't up to the same standard- I find him too inconsistant to be truly great!


I also love Websters "The Duchess of Malfi", for all it's flaws it is a riot. It is the only play I know with only one survivng principle character at the end of Act 5, and even that principle is is a second tier one, because about 6 people die in the last 2 scenes!