An admittedly personal list, skewed by those plays that I've actually read/seen
THE HISTORY BOYS - Best play I've seen in a few years. It deals with the appropriate purpose of education, as well as the complex relationships between a teacher and students.
THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LENANE - Life in an out-of-the-way Irish village, with a gargoyle of a mother, a repressed daughter, and the brothers whose lives intersect with them. This shows how you can make a powerful play with seemingly mundane characters.
AMADDEUS - Where does genius come from? God? Does it just happen? Even if you don't know much about Mozart, you come to learn a great deal about how mediocrity can be jealous of talent.
THE REAL THING - Tremendous verbal wordplay. It shows how language can be an effective tool.
'NIGHT, MOTHER - A middle-aged woman announces that she will kill herself in 90 minutes, and her mother spends that time convincing her not to do it. Harrowing, moving - and ultimately cruel. But it's a theatrical experience unlike any other.
HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE - Another "cheery" theme - sexual abuse of a young person, and how that person learns to cope.
WIT - Living - and dying - with cancer. It touches almost everyone, but this play deals iwth it from the inside.
DANCING AT LUGHNASA - What is it about the Irish that they write such literate and effective plays? This one can be funny and moving in turns. I would LOVE to do the part of the narrator some day, if for no other reason than to read his opening and closing monologues.
FENCES (and THE PIANO LESSON and TWO TRAINS RUNNING and just about every other August Wilson play) - I'm not black, but these plays delineate the black experience in a way that I can appreciate, at the same creating specific nad believable characters.
ISN'T IT ROMANTIC? (or UNCOMMON WOMEN AND OTHERS) - wise and funny plays about women (with and without men), written by the late great Wendy Wasserstein.
GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS - On one level it's a mystery. On another level, it's almost an update of DEATH OF A SALESMAN - although most of the characters do NOT get any insights into themselves. This is what it means to work in America. It's funny, it's profane, and it's unfortgettable.
Yes, it's 11 (plus). Sorry!
THE HISTORY BOYS - Best play I've seen in a few years. It deals with the appropriate purpose of education, as well as the complex relationships between a teacher and students.
THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LENANE - Life in an out-of-the-way Irish village, with a gargoyle of a mother, a repressed daughter, and the brothers whose lives intersect with them. This shows how you can make a powerful play with seemingly mundane characters.
AMADDEUS - Where does genius come from? God? Does it just happen? Even if you don't know much about Mozart, you come to learn a great deal about how mediocrity can be jealous of talent.
THE REAL THING - Tremendous verbal wordplay. It shows how language can be an effective tool.
'NIGHT, MOTHER - A middle-aged woman announces that she will kill herself in 90 minutes, and her mother spends that time convincing her not to do it. Harrowing, moving - and ultimately cruel. But it's a theatrical experience unlike any other.
HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE - Another "cheery" theme - sexual abuse of a young person, and how that person learns to cope.
WIT - Living - and dying - with cancer. It touches almost everyone, but this play deals iwth it from the inside.
DANCING AT LUGHNASA - What is it about the Irish that they write such literate and effective plays? This one can be funny and moving in turns. I would LOVE to do the part of the narrator some day, if for no other reason than to read his opening and closing monologues.
FENCES (and THE PIANO LESSON and TWO TRAINS RUNNING and just about every other August Wilson play) - I'm not black, but these plays delineate the black experience in a way that I can appreciate, at the same creating specific nad believable characters.
ISN'T IT ROMANTIC? (or UNCOMMON WOMEN AND OTHERS) - wise and funny plays about women (with and without men), written by the late great Wendy Wasserstein.
GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS - On one level it's a mystery. On another level, it's almost an update of DEATH OF A SALESMAN - although most of the characters do NOT get any insights into themselves. This is what it means to work in America. It's funny, it's profane, and it's unfortgettable.
Yes, it's 11 (plus). Sorry!