I sent the article off to a small coterie of theatre cronies, to whom I always email such items which I think might pique their interest. The most amusing reply I got to the query of whether Arcadia is the greatest play of our age came from David Melville, managing director of The Independent Shakespeare Company in LA (and actor par excellence), “Not the production I was in.”
But barring dicey productions and dealing with the play itself, I would have to say ARCADIA is certainly high on my list as one of most memorable plays I have seen in the last quarter of the twentieth century and into the first decade of the 21st. I’ve been fortunate to see three terrific productions of the play…The West End transfer from the National Theatre at the Haymarket which featured Roger Allam and was directed by Trevor Nunn, a production at the Mark Taper Forum in LA, and our own production at Actors Guild directed by Ave Lawyer.
I’m not a huge fan of “greatest” lists…usually because people have short memories or don’t put much historical perspective in their choices and you end up with “greatest” lists of films or songs or plays that are top-heavy with stuff from more recent years and significant work from earlier days gets short shrift…their impact and importance forsaken for picks that were, not actually better, but merely fresher in the mind.
When I compose lists, I emphasize their personal impact on me and try not to speak for entire generations (you won’t find Star Wars in my top one hundred films…) and stress that my picks are usually “favourites” and have nothing to do with the austere weightiness of greatness.
But the whole question of Arcadia’s place in the pantheon of theatre in the last twenty-five/thirty years…certainly fertile years in my theatre development…got me thinking about what were the most influential plays, for me, written during that time. The ones that impressed me the most and, more importantly, have stayed with me the most…those that got under my skin and still rattle through the brain.
So without, rummaging through my stash of theatre programmes (I think I’ve got them all the way back from my earliest theatre-going days in high school…anyone remember HOSTILE WITNESS with Ray Milland?) and only ransacking my memory…a tool that becomes more deficient as I creep toward decrepitude…I proffer my list of ten plays that have stood out for me from say, 1980 on (written in that period), in no particular order…
1) ARCADIA…would definitely be on the list. Again another brilliant Stoppard melding of intellect and emotion that produces an exquisitely moving play.
2) THE REAL THING…I know some will argue that ARCADIA is Stoppard’s best; some will champion ROCK ‘N’ ROLL. I was tremendously moved by EVERY GOOD BOY DESERVES FAVOUR at the National this past January. But THE REAL THING, for me, balances the scales with ARCADIA. I saw the original London production on the third day after it opened with Roger Rees and Felicity Kendal. It’s a wonderful play about love and language and loyalty.
3) AMADEUS…Along with Stoppard, Peter Shaffer is my favourite playwright. Again, a play I saw on my first trip to London in 1982 while I was shooting my Holmes films, HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES & SIGN OF FOUR. Imagine being young and turned loose in London with plenty of per diem pocket change. It was a revelatory time for me.
4) GIFT OF THE GORGON…another Shaffer and what’s interesting about it is that I’ve never seen a production of it. But when I read it in the mid-nineties, I simply said, “This is the best play I’ve read in ten years.” About revenge, the theatre, the death of theatre, the endurance of theatre. And so much more. And, as one might imagine from its title, it's very Greek…an awesome inexorableness about it. Struck a very personal chord with me.
5) THE PIANO LESSON…saw it in LA with Charles Dutton. Every August Wilson play I’ve ever seen I’ve enjoyed immensely. But this is the one that has hit the deepest and lingered the longest.
6) NICHOLAS NICKLEBY…How could one not be overwhelmed by its sheer magnitude of its bravura theatricality. Nine hours and not a moment of boredom.
7) PILLOWMAN…Again, one of those plays that bowled me over when I first read it. Eric Seale’s stunner of a production last season at Actors Guild confirmed to me the play’s power and poetry.
8) AMY’S VIEW…Saw the West End transfer from the National with Judi Dench. David Hare mixing the cultural politics of our time with a love letter to the theatre.
9) MUTABILITIE…by Frank McGuinness. Set in Ireland in the sixteenth century, it involves myth, Shakespeare, Spenser, the Faerie Queene, and so much more. I’m not sure I could even tell you what this play is about, but I found it riveting seeing it in its initial production at the National’s Cottesloe. I’m not sure it’s even had any other productions. A strange, dreamy, poetic play that still haunts me.
10) NOISES OFF…another of those I saw on my first trip to England. I love it for its obvious theatrical connections and because it is a very funny farce. Reminds me of my days in dinner theatre.
Well, I’ve reached my ten and feel it’s only the tip of the ice-berg. I suppose some psychologist could make something out of how many of them have literary, theatrical, artistic underpinings or themes. But on another day, in another mood, that list could shift and change some. And actually I realize all but one of these…PILLOWMAN…are from the twentieth century. Maybe the first ten years of the new century is a list for another day.
So give me your list. What are the most memorably significant plays for you from the last 30 years?
But barring dicey productions and dealing with the play itself, I would have to say ARCADIA is certainly high on my list as one of most memorable plays I have seen in the last quarter of the twentieth century and into the first decade of the 21st. I’ve been fortunate to see three terrific productions of the play…The West End transfer from the National Theatre at the Haymarket which featured Roger Allam and was directed by Trevor Nunn, a production at the Mark Taper Forum in LA, and our own production at Actors Guild directed by Ave Lawyer.
I’m not a huge fan of “greatest” lists…usually because people have short memories or don’t put much historical perspective in their choices and you end up with “greatest” lists of films or songs or plays that are top-heavy with stuff from more recent years and significant work from earlier days gets short shrift…their impact and importance forsaken for picks that were, not actually better, but merely fresher in the mind.
When I compose lists, I emphasize their personal impact on me and try not to speak for entire generations (you won’t find Star Wars in my top one hundred films…) and stress that my picks are usually “favourites” and have nothing to do with the austere weightiness of greatness.
But the whole question of Arcadia’s place in the pantheon of theatre in the last twenty-five/thirty years…certainly fertile years in my theatre development…got me thinking about what were the most influential plays, for me, written during that time. The ones that impressed me the most and, more importantly, have stayed with me the most…those that got under my skin and still rattle through the brain.
So without, rummaging through my stash of theatre programmes (I think I’ve got them all the way back from my earliest theatre-going days in high school…anyone remember HOSTILE WITNESS with Ray Milland?) and only ransacking my memory…a tool that becomes more deficient as I creep toward decrepitude…I proffer my list of ten plays that have stood out for me from say, 1980 on (written in that period), in no particular order…
1) ARCADIA…would definitely be on the list. Again another brilliant Stoppard melding of intellect and emotion that produces an exquisitely moving play.
2) THE REAL THING…I know some will argue that ARCADIA is Stoppard’s best; some will champion ROCK ‘N’ ROLL. I was tremendously moved by EVERY GOOD BOY DESERVES FAVOUR at the National this past January. But THE REAL THING, for me, balances the scales with ARCADIA. I saw the original London production on the third day after it opened with Roger Rees and Felicity Kendal. It’s a wonderful play about love and language and loyalty.
3) AMADEUS…Along with Stoppard, Peter Shaffer is my favourite playwright. Again, a play I saw on my first trip to London in 1982 while I was shooting my Holmes films, HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES & SIGN OF FOUR. Imagine being young and turned loose in London with plenty of per diem pocket change. It was a revelatory time for me.
4) GIFT OF THE GORGON…another Shaffer and what’s interesting about it is that I’ve never seen a production of it. But when I read it in the mid-nineties, I simply said, “This is the best play I’ve read in ten years.” About revenge, the theatre, the death of theatre, the endurance of theatre. And so much more. And, as one might imagine from its title, it's very Greek…an awesome inexorableness about it. Struck a very personal chord with me.
5) THE PIANO LESSON…saw it in LA with Charles Dutton. Every August Wilson play I’ve ever seen I’ve enjoyed immensely. But this is the one that has hit the deepest and lingered the longest.
6) NICHOLAS NICKLEBY…How could one not be overwhelmed by its sheer magnitude of its bravura theatricality. Nine hours and not a moment of boredom.
7) PILLOWMAN…Again, one of those plays that bowled me over when I first read it. Eric Seale’s stunner of a production last season at Actors Guild confirmed to me the play’s power and poetry.
8) AMY’S VIEW…Saw the West End transfer from the National with Judi Dench. David Hare mixing the cultural politics of our time with a love letter to the theatre.
9) MUTABILITIE…by Frank McGuinness. Set in Ireland in the sixteenth century, it involves myth, Shakespeare, Spenser, the Faerie Queene, and so much more. I’m not sure I could even tell you what this play is about, but I found it riveting seeing it in its initial production at the National’s Cottesloe. I’m not sure it’s even had any other productions. A strange, dreamy, poetic play that still haunts me.
10) NOISES OFF…another of those I saw on my first trip to England. I love it for its obvious theatrical connections and because it is a very funny farce. Reminds me of my days in dinner theatre.
Well, I’ve reached my ten and feel it’s only the tip of the ice-berg. I suppose some psychologist could make something out of how many of them have literary, theatrical, artistic underpinings or themes. But on another day, in another mood, that list could shift and change some. And actually I realize all but one of these…PILLOWMAN…are from the twentieth century. Maybe the first ten years of the new century is a list for another day.
So give me your list. What are the most memorably significant plays for you from the last 30 years?
POGUE’S MEDIA CHECK
POGUE’S WATCHING:
INTO THE STORM…the HBO films about Churchill’s war years. A time when we still had politicians and leaders of greatness.
JEZEBEL & THE LETTER…two collaborations of director William Wyler and Bette Davis that played on TCM this weekend. JEZEBEL is sort of their version of GONE WITH THE WIND, a year before it came out. THE LETTER is a terrific Somerset Maugham melodrama. Interesting to watch James Stephenson (who died much too young) and how his subtle playing can undercut Bette Davis’ often overwrought histrionics.
THE TONY AWARDS…I remember when this used to be the classiest awards show on TV. No more. As with far too much TV, they have desperately tried to appeal to that 18-49 year old demographic and junked the show up. This show should either be turned over to PBS or CBS should just acknowledge the Tonys is never going to be a ratings coup and let it be what it needs to be.
The opening number epitomized to me everything that is wrong with Broadway…Bad rock musicals, musicals based on movies, revivals of musicals that have either been revived too often or don't need to be. Rock of Ages is an embarrassment to Broadway and the Tonys, but then, of course, it’s an embarrassment to rock ‘n’ roll too. SHREK? Who needs this? Please, stop the Disneyification of Broadway. Do we really need yet another revival of GUYS & DOLLS which seems like it’s in perennial revival mode…if not Broadway, in the West End. We certainly didn’t need this phlegmatic version. If Broadway wants to revive something, why not FLAHOOLEY or HAZEL FLAGG? Of course, during the Bush years, they missed a chance to revive LI’L ABNER…which would have been a trenchant and timely satire.
And did we really need the numbers of the Road Show companies that looked like high school musicals?
Of course, there were some good things. BILLY ELLIOTT & NEXT TO NORMAL look like interesting musicals. I was pleased with Geoffrey Rush’s win for EXIT THE KING and enjoyed his classy acceptance speech. Always terrific to see the great Frank Langella, even if he’s only presenting and not up for anything. Jerry Herman was a reminder of great old book musicals. Herman has never been a favourite of mine, but I’ll take him over today’s fare and Michael Feinstein singing a few bars of I WON’T SEND ROSES reminded me of what a great song it is…for my money, maybe Herman’s best.
It looked like an fairly interesting season of straight plays which, alas, on a show like this always get short shrift to the musicals. And poor Liza. Poor, poor Liza.
POGUE’S LISTENING TO:
SALAD DAYS…a much-loved British musical from the fifties that is really the silliest bit of tosh.
BEN BAGLEY’S IRVING BERLIN REVISITED…In these composer salutes, the late Mr. Bagley always assembled the most interesting performers and the lesser known songs of the tunesmith; some being little gems, others lesser known for a reason…MR. MONOTONY is not a Berlin high point.
POGUE’S READING:
THE CURSE OF CAIN…by one Theodore J. Nottingham. It purports to be the untold story of John Wilkes Booth even as the author purports to be his descendant. The premise is Booth was not caught, but lived and escaped to Asia. I’m not sure how much I buy into all this…but these kinds of mysteries fascinate me…Who was Jack the Ripper, who killed the Princes in the Tower (I’m a devout Richardian, who believes Richard III was innocent), who wrote Shakespeare’s plays?
EMPEROR & GALILEAN…one of Ibsen’s early history plays. I’ve become quite a fan of these, once I learned of their existence. This happened perusing the exhibits of the now defunct and much lamented Theatre Museum in Covent Garden, where I chanced upon a production photo of Ellen Terry in Ibsen’s VIKINGS AT HELGELAND, directed by her illegitimate son, Gordon Craig. The intriguing title sent me on a hunt for this play and I discovered Mr. Ibsen had been quite busy before such modern classics as A DOLL’S HOUSE and HEDDA GABLER.
EMPEROR & GALILEAN is about the Roman emperor Julian who tried to dispense with Christianity and re-instate the pagan gods. Not that far along in it yet to know how the play holds up, but the subject matter has intrigued me ever since a meeting eons ago with actor Michael York up at his house above Sunset Boulevard where he gave me JULIAN, Gore Vidal’s novel on the same subject to see if it might be something I’d be interested in doing. I was, though I could never figure why he wouldn’t want Vidal to do it. In any event, for reasons I have no memory of…it never came about.
So what’s on your media checklist? Any films, books, or music you want to give thumbs up or down to?
