A play's significance on the other hand, is often revealed by looking back to the period when it was first written and performed on stage. The Shifting Heart, arguably Richard Beynon's most distinguished play premiered at the Newtown Theatre in Sydney, 1957, under the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust's sponsorship and production (Elizabethan Theatre Trust, n.d). Resultant successful national tours, a West End production, multiple awards, critical acclaims and current place in the NSW school syllabus are perhaps the hallmarks of such a play. The characteristics of a canonical work? Check, check and check.…
This play was one of the longest plays I had ever sat in on, but it didn’t feel like it. The characters and the story kept making me want more. It was that good! This play, however, did provide more than just entertainment. It provided a sense of wonder, wonder about the lives of the characters, what they felt, what they thought, and what they did.…
The film adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun directed by Bill Duke in collaboration with American Playhouse and the Public Broadcasting Service is concordant with the original written script, following dialogue, stage directions, and even the characters’ physical attributes. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the similarities, differences, and details between the written play A Raisin in the Sun and the American Playhouse’s rendition of the play. The written play is praised by the New York Times as “The play that changed American theater forever... A seething interplay of past and present, of wisdom and passion.”…
This sinister quality can become even undeniably present in productions of this play. Brown writes that while scholars cannot consider any performance to be an authoritative adaptation, every performance brings interpretative potential to the source text. Each performance is able “to explicate ‘secret’ theatrical messages in the text and so help readers to hear and see what could, and, sometimes, must happen on stage” (45). Davies’ 2016 A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one such…
In The Cuttlefish, Witkiewicz is pushing the boundaries of theater away from dramatic form and the confines of characters who have action and dramatic flair. Witkiewicz is pushing in this play towards a pure form which would “free drama from the demands of consistency of plot, continuity of time, and all laws governing psychology and logic. As in The Cuttlefish, Witkiewicz’s characters exist on two simultaneous planes, both as projections of the mind of the central artist figure, frequently standing for Witkiewicz himself, and as characters in their own right, violently defending their positions against the artist antihero.” (Culture.pl)…
about it. Nat Danzinger sees all the trouble and corruption and yet he just cannot help loving life and people. Odets is bitter and he is not afraid to show it. He wants to present corruption and he does.…
In Tennessee Williams’ play, the drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, certain themes from the playwright’s own life are reflected throughout the plot of the play. Having watched the play in class, I will analyze and discuss the plot, characters, and themes of the play by including examples from the play. Furthermore, I will mention how the art of the play resonated with me, and what I learned from the play about theatre. Williams’ play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof follows a climactic plot structure with a cause and effect type of construction. The play opens up with introducing the Pollitt family, a Southern family in crisis, gathered at the family estate to celebrate the birthday and “good” health of Big Daddy.…
The Queensland Theatre Company’s famous Australian contemporary piece The Secret River was written by Andrew Bovell and directed by Neil Armfield. Adapted from the book, it can be viewed as a Gothic theatre piece through its use of conventions, setting and themes. The play follows the moral dilemma of the main character William Thornhill. Exemplifying the difficult adaption for both the European settlers and the aboriginal land owners. As both sides thought they were right, their actions justified, leading to a fight over land and ending with a massacre of the Indigenous people (played by Ningali Lawford).…
The cuttlefish is a very unique animal in its own ways. Its habitat is the ocean but the ocean is home to many other organisms. The Cuttlefish is not a very vicious animal, and it is also not a fighter. There are predators that can eat the cuttlefish, like every organism but like many other organisms it has its very own defense mechanisms. The main defense mechanism of a cuttlefish is its camouflaged skin.…
Section two ꞉ Binary Oppositions in play ‛ Waiting for Godot’ ꞉ ‛ Waiting for Godot’ is considered as a masterpiece in world literature ∙ It is one of Beckett’s beautiful plays∙ This astonishing play has two acts ∙ This play refers to the ‛ Theater Of The Absurd’∙…
Gem of the Ocean is a part of a ten play chronicle written by August Wilson where slavery has ended but, we can still see that it still exist. Gem of the Ocean takes place about 40 years after the abolition of slavery, which is not nearly enough time for people to move on and evolve from such a detrimental occurrence in history. Slavery is a manmade problem the promoted racism and was passed on through the generations. Racism and ignorance created this fear among the races and a selfish sense of only caring for one’s own race. Even though it has been years from the time the play takes place this Nation still experience some of the same issues it did at that time.…
When producing a play that is considered a classic and has remained popular for centuries, it is easy to fall into the habit of directing it the way that it usually is, without giving much thought to all of the individual elements of it. One of the crucial elements to any production that is all too frequently overlooked in these situations is the feeling that the audience is left with after the end of the play. For Tartuffe in particular, it is convenient to assume that because the play is labeled as a comedy, it will have a happy ending that will leave the audience feeling content. In reality, while the contrived ending that Moliere has written and a direct interpretation of the text in the staging of the play will leave the audience feeling…
Annotated Bibliography Bloom, Harold. " Othello." New Haven, US: Yale University Press (2005): 259. ProQuest ebrary. Web.…
Using specific examples from Brecht’s methodology and plays you have seen discuss the influence that Berthold Brecht’s theories regarding production techniques have had on the theatre of today using examples from a play or plays you have seen. Berthold Brecht is the German born playwright, theatre director and father of “epic theatre” (Gradesaver.com, 2015). In this essay I will be observing how Brecht has influenced other playwrights over the years, to do this I have a play (The ballad of the burning star) and a musical (1998 Broadway version of caberet) as case studies. I will then compare the examples I find to Brecht’s own work. Brecht gave future generations many methods to incorporate into their performances such as; Verfremdungseffekt-…
The Merchant of Venice: Comedy or Tragedy? Many would agree that William Shakespeare is one of the world’s greatest playwrights. He is known for his ability to entertain audiences and capture their affections through his beloved characters. Many of his plays contain themes that are everlasting and able to move audiences through several generations.…