I realise there's no theatrical board on Sup Forums...

I realise there's no theatrical board on Sup Forums, it's a shame because new generations tends to be very ignorant about it or, worse, dismiss it as leftist Broadway faggotry. There's very solid plays everyone should see at least once in a lifetime.

Today I saw Antigone (Anouilh version) and it made me think and question myself more than any modern film I could watch. I was kinda scared when I realised I used to find Antigone rebellion somehow beautiful but now, with a bit of age, I can only agree with Créon. It made me sad but also more at peace with myself.

Have you any similar experiences ?

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I've been wanting to get into it but I don't even know where to start. Seems like it's basically inaccessible to anyone not living in London

I'd watch these if they were on film. Oh well. Where's the image from btw?

I watched rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead once. Pretty good imo, top tier banter

I've seen Ivo van Hove's Antigone with Juliette Binoche. it didn't get good reviews but I was really impressed. Binoche is so good in literally everything.

I'd love for there to be /theater/ or at the very least /Broadway/ but let's be honest, modern Sup Forums is 100% conservative identity politics now. such a shame.

>seeing Binoche live

w-what was she like

You can watch recorded play, there's even some theaters who broadcast live from London or Paris.

As for where to begin... Try something classical you already heard about with some actors you know, some Shakespeare or Molière with actors like Patrick Stewart or Tennant or Malkovich. They're famous for a reason. Once you're warmed up to it,try more challeging stuff. This Antigone version is an allegory of the German occupation of France for exemple.

The pic is from Antigone, the whole play is on jewtube (in French though)

oh no lol I just saw the broadcast. it was shown in cinemas. tickets immediately sold out and cost like a minimum of £100.

(she was beautiful)

Sounds good. I guess that version was more classical than Anouilh. French actors are actually very good for theater... But they kinda suck for movies.

>theater

lol gay

Can you recommend film versions of classical Greek plays? I haven't seen any Greek plays performed at all.

Anouilh is an underrated dramatist even in the theatrical world. Becket is another accessible piece by him that you can read alongside the film adaptation.

The theatre died once it became clear how much more money could be made from films. These days there are several types of theatre you can experience easily: derivative Broadway trash with good singing, community theatre Shakespeare, or modern dramas about oppressed people.

If you live anywhere near any college with a theatre program check out what they're doing, especially student run productions.

t. Bachelor's in theatre performance

I loved what I heard of eurydice. shame it isn't performed anywhere.

don't you like modern (or modernist) theater? Albee still brings in crowds. he has a revival on broadway right now.

Annie Baker is my theater waifu (The Flick won the Pulitzer). Given that you like "real" theater you might find her stuff cloyingly infantile, but for me she's the mumblecore or milennial John Hughes of theater writers. really accessible stuff, but maybe not for aficionados.

I'm a big Broadway fan too.

Typical burger
Young Barbara Schulz was a true qt too
Oedipus Rex and anything from the Thébaïde obviously, but there's so many... I remember a great roman play about Nero too

This.

t. Another bachelor

>You can watch recorded play
Yeah but where

> Becket
I really want to find a a good adaptation of Waiting for Godo

I've read Antigone and really liked it but haven't seen it

Hard to find an english dub. I'd recommend you watch the french version with Robert Hossein with subtitles if you can find them (the video is really easy to find on YouTube)

I've found an old 1974 english version too faithful to Anouilh, you can google it

I wasn't trying to come across as snobbish honestly. It depresses me more than pisses me off but I guess that's a lesson for me to continue trying to work to better it. Ill check out Baker. It's a name I know but there were so many more names discussed than plays read in college. I also can't say I don't love West Side Story or Les Mis. But Broadway is so caught up profit and personality cults(a former roommate of mine had until numbers of bootlegs of just one particular performer from productions of Wicked) that even it has lost much of what made it magical. Opera is still fairly pure to it's roots in the way professional Shakespeare companies are if you want to expand your musical horizons.


Albee is the best American playwright. My favorite project was directing The American Dream in college. I'd take him over Williams or Miller any day of the week. I'm a sucker for absurdism tho.

oh no that wasn't an insult. I don't think she would consider herself in the same league as someone like Anouilh; her work isn't that type of theater. Honestly you probably won't like her. The Flick--which won the Pulitzer--just plain doesn't look good on paper because part of its charm is its staging. People walked out en masse because there's meant to be massively long silences between lines and a rhythmic tedium throughout (she was trying to do the slow cinema thing... but for theater). It's also full of dumb poop and puke humor. not even kidding.

high brow she is not.

>My favorite project was directing The American Dream in college
now that is cool.

I'm also burnt out by modern broadway but there are gems here and there. the fact that shit like Dear Evan Hansen gets praised just baffles me though.

Iphigenia (1977)
Electra (1962)
Oedipus Rex (1967)
Medea (1969)
Antigone (1961)

the Pasolinis don't perform the text though.

haven't read the plays so I wouldn't know, sorry about that.
The films were great though.

I've been asking for /art/ for years now, OP, to discuss theater and opera and such. There's too few of us to make it happen sadly.

yeah they're great films that everyone should watch anyway.

if you want to really test yourself try the Straub Huillet film adaptations (they've done Antigone). They stage the entire play but in the most weird, minimalist ways. Like entire scenes will be performed on the roof of a building and the planes flying overhead and cars below drown out the actors so you can't even hear what they're saying.

Personally I've never finished one.

I'd gladly hop on board if it included visual arts and actual films. Man I'd kill for a thread on art history with Sup Forums-style humor

I think /lit/ is the best place to post about plays.

their version is my favorite (not that there are many...) and I love Straub-Huillet but I don't think it's for everybody hence why I haven't suggested it. Try Moses und Aaron I think you will like it and it's easier to get through.

I mean I'll still give her a read. I've really slipped away from the theatre since college but that's more my inaction and stubbornness to adapt to the current theatrical climate than any of my perceived issues with it. Good way to force myself back into it all desu. Next up headshots and whoever the fuck is putting on some Shakespeare followed by digging up old drafts and cringing.


Hamilton is the perfect example for what is often wrong in Broadway to me. Is it catchy and good musically? Sure. Does it dramatize historical information most audiences don't actually know much about? Yes. But I feel I only ever hear about how successful it has been or how progressive it is.

There's a vibrant arts community in my area, but I don't want to deal with hipsters, snobs and such. I love classical music and the theatre, is there any way to enjoy them without being seen as pretentious?

I think I'd be more receptive if I knew French or German fluently. because it's so static and flatly delivered you're practically just reading the play via subtitles lol.

love their other non-play stuff though.

I've never seen as much shitflinging from people with a passing knowledge of something than when /lit/ talks about drama. Imagine old Sup Forums power rankings threads but with Shakespeare's complete works and everyone in the thread is entirely serious.

There's an board already

I really enjoyed the Straub-Huillet film based on Othon, a French play from the 17th century. It's quite like a theatrical production in some ways, but also not.
I did receive a book as a present a few years ago which was written by The Guardian's chief theatre critic containing his 101 greatest plays, which contained a number I've been meaning to try to watch or at least read at some point, but it's not especially high up my list at the moment.

I'd probably start with John. merely reading The Flick may just disappoint you. on the plus side it's so short you can read it in 2 or 3 evenings.

I like Hamilton but it wasn't even my favorite show that year and honestly some of the melodies are just plain bad. It IS all about the wordplay though and it really does excel there. but yeah, pushing boundaries in today's broadway climate it near-impossible.

You might like Michael John LaChuisa if you haven't heard of him. he does operetta/broadway crossover stuff.

just go and have fun for yourself. don't worry about how other people treat theater, because they're only doing it for themselves.

community theater is really just a stepping stone that people use to build their own personal talents.

or try and take a buddy with you so you always have someone to talk to.

thank you

Why do you care if you're seen as pretentious? Just go watch and don't actually engage with the community if you don't want to. After a while I'm sure you'll know which productions to avoid if you see certain names on the playbill

>tfw live in an expensive city and every little theatre company charges upwards of 15 dollars
>Every remotely political piece is "dude fuck drumpf lmao"
>Many casting calls and opportunities for writers/directors mention something to the effect of "poc and women will be considered first"
>The improv/sketch scene's arrogance

opera discussion happens in /classical/ but yeah I get what you're saying. I think opera discussion fits better in classical than discussion of plays fits in /lit/
I'm and I've quite enjoyed the couple I've seen. Yeah they're a bit weird but it's really enjoyable. I decided to watch the Othon adaptation mainly because I love films with ridiculous titles and it had that, but I ended up really enjoying it. Pity I could only find it on youtube and then it had been deleted by the time I went back to look for it.

I got used to the delivery midway so maybe try it again? At first it was very annoying and I was taken aback by the arbitrary splitting of the lines, but then it sort of became like a litany or something and I was mesmerized.

Also two of my favorite theater people are from Italy Romeo Castellucci and Carmelo Bene, you can find few things online with subtitles but they're well worth it.

Have you seen Medea, user?

all the Straub/Huillet stuff got restored/rescanned recently so I will try again at some point. I last saw them on like 700MB dvdrips years and years ago so that didn't help the experience.

but either way I'm pretty sure they aren't the most ideal ways to experience the plays! I'd rather see a live production at the end of the day.

I also love Castellucci!

Thanks for the recommendations. I can mostly offer recommendations for absurdist theatre, a few sometimes forgotten classical works and then two books about theatre that I think are really important for anyone who wants to actually create if any of that is up your alley.

You but that's just two kinos, that's nothing. Doesn't sound like you know what you're talking about user

>I can mostly offer recommendations for absurdist theatre
GIVE ME ALL OF THEM.

>all the Straub/Huillet stuff got restored/rescanned recently
oh wow I didn't know, same here there's a 40 gb bluray version of Moses und Aaron on kg that was uploaded a week ago

if you're a true patrician you'll buy the streaming rights to them and share them all with us: store.grasshopperfilm.com/the-straub-huillet-collection.html

just $200-$400 a film. super cheap.

I will be the first one to say that I find plays as an inferior medium of storytelling, both to books and films.
The vast majority of the performances are far too overexpressive, it's like they have express so hard so even the person in the last row get's the emotion, while film allows for much more subtle and natural performances, and that's just the acting part.

Now that doesn't mean that there are no great plays, but I would always rather watch a great film or read a great book than look out for good plays.
The intimate actor-audience relationship is great though

stage acting is cringy as fuck though

damn. Straub is making a buck I see, financing that revolution probably

lmao

I wouldn't want to start too obviously but I think Marat/Sade is the most bizarrely enthralling piece of poetry out there. Film adaptation is easy to find and very good.

No Exit by Sartre
The Physicists by Friedrich Durrenmatt
A Delicate Balance by Edward Albee
Anything Harold Pinter has done. I like the Lover personally.
Endgame by Beckett
The Lesson by Ionesco

This may be a wider definition of absurdism but I think some of Brecht falls into it. The Life of Galileo is great.

I've read the Sartre and Albee. Great stuff. Been meaning to dive into Pinter. amazon wishlist here I come. I'll probably start with The Lesson since it's short.

btw what's your opinion on David Mamet?

His work is good, but can begin to take itself too seriously for me. I can appreciate that the he approaches his serious material with an appropriate heavy tone. But such one tone work leaves me struggling to become engaged in his stories. I think a lot of people who perform and direct his work contribute to this aspect of Mamet's plays. The reverence for him in American theatre makes people push this aspect of his work to the detriment of the rest of it.

I like his work on theatre more. Three Uses of the Knife is essential imo.

Pinter is a must, should be plenty of collections to choose from. Don't skip out on Durrenmatt either. The Physicists is delightful.

I think it's easy for students (especially young men) to get rapt up in his prose because it's so punchy and aggressive, and maybe thats what directors are playing into.

He was my gateway into theater (Glengarry) but I still think he's underrated, especially in the cinematic realm. His latest stuff isn't all that compelling though and he seems to be repeating himself quite a bit.

He has a Masterclass instructional series where he goes over stuff like Three uses of the knife. It's really fun to just watch him tell tales.

That's exactly it. Something like Oleanna for instance, I think would benefit from being a little shorter. It's easy enough to see why people can fall into it. I and many other do the same thing with Shakespeare by putting his poetry on a pedestal and neglecting the gestalt of a complete dramatic work. No different here. Perfect entry point for many artists and accessible passion to tap into.

As time continues I think Mamet will be more well known for his impact on American drama than as a playwright.